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Ratiometric SERS-based assay with “sandwich” structure for detection of serotonin

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Abstract

A ratiometric nanoensemble-functionalized Surface-Enhanced Raman Spectroscopy (SERS) chip is proposed and an ultrasensitive “sandwich” structure introduced for the detection of 5-HT to achieve early diagnosis of colon cancer. The SERS-based chip contains core–shell SERS active substrates coded by different Raman tags with Raman-silent region peaks (Au@EBP@Au NR arrays and Au@MBN@Ag NPs) and then identify-function molecule modification to construct the “sandwich” structure (Au@EBP@Au NR arrays/5-HT/Au@MBN@Ag NPs). Au@EBP@Au NR arrays showed excellent SERS performance, including good uniformity with an RSD of 5.53% and an enhancement factor (EF) of 2.13 × 107. The intensity ratio of the peaks in the Raman silent region was proportional to the concentration of 5-HT in the range 5 × 10−7–1 × 10−3 M, with a detection limit (LOD) of 4.9 × 10−9 M. Excellent assay accuracy was also demonstrated, with recoveries in the range 96.80% to 104.96%. Finally, we found that 5-HT expression levels in normal human sera were much lower than those in colon cancer patients by using a SERS-based chip for determination of the concentration of 5-HT in clinical colon cancer serum. This result suggested that the proposed approach has potential for detecting 5-HT by ratiometric SERS-based chips for early diagnosis of colon cancer.

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The processed data required to reproduce these findings cannot be shared at this time as the data also forms part of an ongoing study.

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Funding

We are grateful for the support by the Fujian Provincial Department of Science and Technology guiding Project (2020Y0019), the Youth and Middle-Aged Backbone Talents Training Project of Fujian Health Commission (2020GGA003), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 61975031), the Program for Industry University Cooperation Project of Fujian Province (2020Y4006), the Innovative Research Team in Science and Technology in Fujian Province University, the Achievement Transformation Project of Fuzhou Science and Technology Bureau (2020-GX-20), and the Fushimei Agricultural and Rural Maker Space (Minke xing〔2019〕No. 2).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Chemistry and Materials Science, Fujian Provincial Key Laboratory of Advanced, Materials Oriented Chemical Engineering, Fujian Key Laboratory of Polymer Materials, Engineering Research Center of Industrial Biocatalysis, Fujian Province Higher Education Institutes, Fujian Normal University, Fuzhou, 350007, China

    Min Fan, Sirui Han, Qian Huang, Yudong Lu & Ruiyun You

  2. Key Laboratory of Optoelectronic Science and Technology for Medicine of Ministry of Education, Fujian Provincial Key Laboratory of Photonics Technology, Fujian Normal University, Fuzhou, 350117, Fujian, China

    Min Fan & Shangyuan Feng

  3. Department of Oncology Shengli Clinical Medical College of Fujian Medical , University Fujian Provincial Hospital, Fuzhou, 350001, Fujian, China

    Jingbo Chen

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  1. Min Fan
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Contributions

Min Fan: investigation, writing—original draft. Sirui Han: investigation, methodology, writing—review and editing. Ruiyun You: resources, writing—review and editing. Jingbo Chen: investigation, formal analysis. Shangyuan Feng: formal analysis. Yudong Lu: supervision, funding acquisition, resources.

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Correspondence to Jingbo Chen or Ruiyun You.

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Fan, M., Han, S., Huang, Q. et al. Ratiometric SERS-based assay with “sandwich” structure for detection of serotonin. Microchim Acta 190, 100 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00604-023-05634-0

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