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In situ, accurate, surface-enhanced Raman scattering detection of cancer cell nucleus with synchronous location by an alkyne-labeled biomolecular probe

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Abstract

A surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) method for in situ detection and analysis of the intranuclear biomolecular information of a cell has been developed based on a small, biocompatible, nuclear-targeting alkyne-tagged deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) probe (5-ethynyl-2′-deoxyuridine, EDU) that can specially accumulate in the cell nucleus during DNA replications to precisely locate the nuclear region without disturbance in cell biological activities and functions. Since the specific alkyne group shows a Raman peak in the Raman-silent region of cells, it is an interior label to visualize the nuclear location synchronously in real time when measuring the SERS spectra of a cell. Because no fluorescent-labeled dyes were used for locating cell nuclei, this method is simple, nondestructive, non- photobleaching, and valuable for the in situ exploration of vital physiological processes with DNA participation in cell organelles.

A universal strategy was developed to accurately locate the nuclear region and obtain precise molecular information of cell nuclei by SERS

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Acknowledgements

This work was funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 21373096, 21573087, 21573092, 91441105, and 31271478) and Science and Technology Development plan of Jilin Province in China (20150203013GX).

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Author notes

  1. Jing Zhang and Lijia Liang contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of Supramolecular Structure and Materials, Institute of Theoretical Chemistry, Jilin University, Changchun, Jilin, 130012, China

    Jing Zhang, Lijia Liang, Rong Deng, Shuping Xu & Weiqing Xu

  2. Institute of Frontier Medical Science, Jilin University, Changchun, Jilin, 130021, China

    Xin Guan, Huixin Qu, Dianshuai Huang & Chongyang Liang

Authors
  1. Jing Zhang
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  2. Lijia Liang
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  3. Xin Guan
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  4. Rong Deng
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  5. Huixin Qu
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  6. Dianshuai Huang
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  7. Shuping Xu
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  8. Chongyang Liang
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Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Shuping Xu or Chongyang Liang.

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Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have neither financial nor nonfinancial conflicts of interest.

Ethics

Breast cancer cells (MCF-7) belong to cell line and we bought this cell line from Shanghai ATCC cell gank, which granted the permission of the Human Research Ethics Committee of the country for manipulations of human cells.

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Zhang, J., Liang, L., Guan, X. et al. In situ, accurate, surface-enhanced Raman scattering detection of cancer cell nucleus with synchronous location by an alkyne-labeled biomolecular probe. Anal Bioanal Chem 410, 585–594 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00216-017-0761-4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00216-017-0761-4

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