Atta Supriya, Zhao Yuanhao, Yampolsky Sabina, Sanchez Sebastian, Vo-Dinh Tuan
Fitzpatrick Institute for Photonics, Duke University, Durham, North Carolina 27708-0281, United States.
Department of Biomedical Engineering, Duke University, Durham, North Carolina 27708-0281, United States.
Anal Chem. 2025 Jul 8;97(26):13930-13939. doi: 10.1021/acs.analchem.5c01765. Epub 2025 Jun 26.
Bilirubin, a critical circulating metabolite, functions as a key biomarker for a range of health conditions, including jaundice, hepatitis, cirrhosis, and liver disorders. This highlights the need for a straightforward, rapid, sensitive, and cost-effective method for bilirubin monitoring to enable early diagnosis. In this study, we developed a simple and efficient solution-based SERS platform using highly stable gold nanostars (GNS) with tunable spike numbers (7-20) for direct bilirubin detection in urine without any sample pretreatment. Among the variants tested, GNS with the highest spike number (GNS-4) exhibited the strongest SERS enhancement, achieving a detection limit of 7.4 nM with methylene blue (Mb) as a model analyte. GNS-4 also enabled the direct detection of bilirubin spiked in artificial urine at a 20 nM detection limit. Furthermore, our "mix-and-detect" SERS platform effectively monitored bilirubin levels in urine samples from ten healthy volunteers without any pretreatment, highlighting its potential to differentiate healthy individuals from those at risk. Notably, GNS-4 maintained excellent SERS reproducibility and stability after six months of storage at room temperature. These results underscore the potential of solution-based SERS platforms for rapid, reliable, and cost-effective point-of-care diagnostics.
胆红素是一种关键的循环代谢物，是一系列健康状况的关键生物标志物，包括黄疸、肝炎、肝硬化和肝脏疾病。这凸显了需要一种直接、快速、灵敏且经济高效的胆红素监测方法以实现早期诊断。在本研究中，我们开发了一种基于溶液的简单高效表面增强拉曼光谱（SERS）平台，该平台使用具有可调尖刺数量（7 - 20）的高度稳定的金纳米星（GNS），用于在无需任何样品预处理的情况下直接检测尿液中的胆红素。在所测试的变体中，尖刺数量最高的GNS（GNS - 4）表现出最强的SERS增强效果，以亚甲基蓝（Mb）作为模型分析物时检测限达到7.4 nM。GNS - 4还能够在20 nM的检测限下直接检测添加到人工尿液中的胆红素。此外，我们的“混合检测”SERS平台无需任何预处理即可有效监测来自十名健康志愿者尿液样本中的胆红素水平，凸显了其区分健康个体与有风险个体的潜力。值得注意的是，GNS - 4在室温下储存六个月后仍保持出色的SERS重现性和稳定性。这些结果强调了基于溶液的SERS平台在快速、可靠且经济高效的即时诊断方面的潜力。
