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Chemosensors
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Surface-Enhanced Raman Spectroscopy for Bioanalytics
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Surface-Enhanced Raman Spectroscopy for Bioanalytics

A special issue of Chemosensors (ISSN 2227-9040). This special issue belongs to the section "Analytical Methods, Instrumentation and Miniaturization".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 May 2025 | Viewed by 10053

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Cristina M. Muntean

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
National Institute for Research and Development of Isotopic and Molecular Technologies, 400293 Cluj-Napoca, Romania
Interests: structure and dynamics of nucleic acids; vibrational spectroscopy; biophotonics in DNA-based molecular diagnosis; plasmon-enhanced molecular optical processes (Raman); biosensors
Dr. Sanda Boca-Farcău

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
1. Interdisciplinary Research Institute in Bio-Nano-Sciences, Babes-Bolyai University, 400271 Cluj-Napoca, Romania
2. National Institute for Research and Development of Isotopic and Molecular Technologies, 400293 Cluj-Napoca, Romania
Interests: nanoparticles and theranostic nanocompounds; optical and vibrational (micro)spectroscopy; nanomedicine; nanotoxicology
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Bioanalytical spectroscopic techniques such as surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) have recently gained great development due to their capability for the analysis of biological samples, ranging from biomolecules to in vitro, ex vivo and in vivo systems. SERS is an effective analytical technique with excellent potential in bioanalysis and diagnosis. Being characterized by high sensitivity, specificity and multiplexing ability, the method can be used for a wide range of applications, from the rapid detection of specific analytes to the monitoring of the dynamic, complex structural changes of biomolecules within a biological system. Hence, through the use of SERS, new insights in medical diagnostics can be revealed for a better understanding of life processes and of the molecular mechanisms of various diseases.

The aim of this Special Issue “Surface-Enhanced Raman Spectroscopy for Bioanalytics” is to highlight recent advances for bioanalytical SERS applied to biomolecules, pathogens, biofluids, detection of living cells, drug delivery, development of novel SERS substrates and Raman labels, analytical biosensing and SERS-based point-of-care technology. A comprehensive overview of the experimental design, data analysis and key challenges in bioanalytical SERS can be also considered.

Both review articles and research papers are welcome.

Dr. Cristina M. Muntean
Dr. Sanda Boca-Farcău
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Chemosensors is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2700 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy
  • plasmonics
  • bioanalytics
  • detection
  • diagnostics
  • biosensors
  • multiplexing
  • nanostructures
  • nanoparticles
  • biomolecules

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Published Papers (6 papers)

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Research

13 pages, 3257 KiB  
Article
SERS-Driven Ceftriaxone Detection in Blood Plasma: A Protein Precipitation Approach
by Aradhana Dwivedi, Oleg Ryabchykov, Chen Liu, Edoardo Farnesi, Michael Stenbæk Schmidt, Thomas Bocklitz, Jürgen Popp and Dana Cialla-May
Chemosensors 2024, 12(10), 213; https://doi.org/10.3390/chemosensors12100213 - 16 Oct 2024
Viewed by 711
Abstract
Accurate detection of antibiotics in biological samples is essential for clinical diagnoses and therapeutic drug monitoring. This research examines how proteins and other substances in blood plasma affect the detection of the antibiotic ceftriaxone using surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS). We detected ceftriaxone spiked [...] Read more.
Accurate detection of antibiotics in biological samples is essential for clinical diagnoses and therapeutic drug monitoring. This research examines how proteins and other substances in blood plasma affect the detection of the antibiotic ceftriaxone using surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS). We detected ceftriaxone spiked in blood plasma without sample preparation within the range of 1 mg/mL to 50 µg/mL. By employing a pretreatment approach involving methanol-based protein precipitation to eliminate interfering substances from a spiked blood plasma solution, we could detect ceftriaxone down to 20 µg/mL. The comparative analysis demonstrates that the protein precipitation step enhances the sensitivity of SERS-based detection of drugs in the matrix blood plasma. The insights derived from this study are highly beneficial and can prove advantageous in developing new antibiotic detection methods that are both sensitive and selective in complex biological matrices. These methods can have important implications for clinical treatments. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Surface-Enhanced Raman Spectroscopy for Bioanalytics)
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15 pages, 3898 KiB  
Article
Vibrational Analysis and Concentration Dependent SERS Study of Cefoperazone
by Stefana Ana-Maria Faur, Zsejke-Réka Tóth, Klára Magyari and Monica Baia
Chemosensors 2024, 12(3), 48; https://doi.org/10.3390/chemosensors12030048 - 19 Mar 2024
Viewed by 1657
Abstract
Cefoperazone is a broad-spectrum antibiotic that is extremely efficient in the treatment of respiratory, abdominal, or genital infections. Vibrational spectroscopic techniques, FT-IR, Raman, and SERS, along with DFT calculations, were involved in investigating the normal modes of vibration and adsorption behavior of this [...] Read more.
Cefoperazone is a broad-spectrum antibiotic that is extremely efficient in the treatment of respiratory, abdominal, or genital infections. Vibrational spectroscopic techniques, FT-IR, Raman, and SERS, along with DFT calculations, were involved in investigating the normal modes of vibration and adsorption behavior of this antibiotic. Using both the experimental and theoretical data, the bands in the Raman and IR spectra were assigned to the normal vibrational modes. The SERS spectra were successively obtained by using silver and gold colloidal nanoparticles as a substrate. Their analysis revealed that the molecule is chemisorbed on the nanostructured surface through the as-denoted nitrogen ring. Changes observed in the SERS spectra recorded at different cefoperazone concentrations, i.e., modifications in the relative intensity of specific bands suggest the reorientation of adsorbed molecules towards the metal surface. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Surface-Enhanced Raman Spectroscopy for Bioanalytics)
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17 pages, 7557 KiB  
Article
RepDwNet: Lightweight Deep Learning Model for Special Biological Blood Raman Spectra Analysis
by Jiongheng He, Rigui Zhou, Pengju Ren, Yaochong Li and Shengjun Xiong
Chemosensors 2024, 12(2), 29; https://doi.org/10.3390/chemosensors12020029 - 19 Feb 2024
Viewed by 1852
Abstract
The Raman spectroscopy analysis technique has found extensive applications across various disciplines due to its exceptional convenience and efficiency, facilitating the analysis and identification of diverse substances. In recent years, owing to the escalating demand for high-efficiency analytical methods, deep learning models have [...] Read more.
The Raman spectroscopy analysis technique has found extensive applications across various disciplines due to its exceptional convenience and efficiency, facilitating the analysis and identification of diverse substances. In recent years, owing to the escalating demand for high-efficiency analytical methods, deep learning models have progressively been introduced into the realm of Raman spectroscopy. However, the application of these models to portable Raman spectrometers has posed a series of challenges due to the computational intensity inherent to deep learning approaches. This paper proposes a lightweight classification model, named RepDwNet, for identifying 28 different types of biological blood. The model integrates advanced techniques such as multi-scale convolutional kernels, depth-wise separable convolutions, and residual connections. These innovations enable the model to capture features at different scales while preserving the coherence of feature data to the maximum extent. The experimental results demonstrate that the average recognition accuracy of the model on the reflective Raman blood dataset and the transmissive Raman blood dataset are 97.31% and 97.10%, respectively. Furthermore, by applying structural reparameterization to compress the well-trained model, it maintains high classification accuracy while significantly reducing the parameter size, thereby enhancing the speed of classification inference. This makes the model more suitable for deployment in portable and mobile devices. Additionally, the proposed model can be extended to various Raman spectroscopy classification scenarios. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Surface-Enhanced Raman Spectroscopy for Bioanalytics)
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16 pages, 4189 KiB  
Article
Thyroxine Quantification by Using Plasmonic Nanoparticles as SERS Substrates
by Paulina De Leon Portilla, Ana L. González and Enrique Sanchez-Mora
Chemosensors 2023, 11(10), 516; https://doi.org/10.3390/chemosensors11100516 - 30 Sep 2023
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1516
Abstract
Functionalized Au and Ag nanoparticles (NPs) with ascorbic and tannic acid, respectively, were used as SERS substrates (SS). Several SS were fabricated with different loads of metal NPs deposited on silicon wafers. We focused on the thyroxine (T4) band at 1044 cm−1 [...] Read more.
Functionalized Au and Ag nanoparticles (NPs) with ascorbic and tannic acid, respectively, were used as SERS substrates (SS). Several SS were fabricated with different loads of metal NPs deposited on silicon wafers. We focused on the thyroxine (T4) band at 1044 cm−1 and tracked its intensity and position at concentrations from 10 pM to 1 mM. For all SS, the band intensity decreased as the T4 concentration decreased. Additionally, the band shifted to larger wavenumbers as the NP loads increased. In the case of Au, the SS with the highest load of NPs, the minimum concentration detected was 1 μM. The same load of the Ag NP SS showed a better performance detecting a concentration of 10 pM, an outcome from a SERS-EF of 109. The NP spatial distribution includes mainly isolated NPs, quasi-spherical clusters, and semi-linear arrays of NPs in random orientations. From the numerical simulations, we conclude that the hot spots at the interparticle gaps in a linear array of three NPs are the most intense. The Ag NP SS demonstrated good sensitivity, to allow the detection of pM concentrations. Therefore, its complementation to any immunoassay technique provides an interesting alternative for point-of-care implementations, such as test strips. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Surface-Enhanced Raman Spectroscopy for Bioanalytics)
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16 pages, 7762 KiB  
Article
Surface-Enhance Raman Spectroscopy Detection of Thiabendazole in Frozen Food Products: The Case of Blueberries and Their Extracts
by Csilla Müller Molnár, Camelia Berghian-Groșan, Dana Alina Măgdaș and Simona Cîntă Pînzaru
Chemosensors 2023, 11(9), 505; https://doi.org/10.3390/chemosensors11090505 - 17 Sep 2023
Cited by 3 | Viewed by 1514
Abstract
To improve the control and detection methods of thiabendazole (TBZ), a fungicide and parasiticide often used in food products, we investigated the performance of the SERS technique applied to frozen blueberry fruits available on the market. TBZ-treated fruit extracts provided a multiplexed SERS [...] Read more.
To improve the control and detection methods of thiabendazole (TBZ), a fungicide and parasiticide often used in food products, we investigated the performance of the SERS technique applied to frozen blueberry fruits available on the market. TBZ-treated fruit extracts provided a multiplexed SERS feature, where the SERS bands of TBZ could be distinctly recorded among the characteristic anthocyanidins from blueberries. Quantitative SERS of TBZ in a concentration range from 20 µM to 0.2 µM has been achieved in solutions. However, quantitative multiplexed SERS is challenging due to the gradually increasing spectral background of polyphenols from extracts, which covers the TBZ signal with increasing concentration. The strategy proposed here was to employ food bentonite to filter a substantial amount of flavonoids to allow a higher SERS signal-to-background recording and TBZ recognition. Using bentonite, the LOD for SERS analysis of blueberry extracts provided a detection limit of 0.09 µM. From the relative intensity of the specific SERS bands as a function of concentration, we estimated the detection capability of TBZ to be 0.0001 mg/kg in blueberry extracts, which is two orders of magnitude lower than the maximum allowed by current regulations. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Surface-Enhanced Raman Spectroscopy for Bioanalytics)
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17 pages, 3064 KiB  
Article
SERS of Human Red Blood Cells in Non-Resonant Conditions: Benefits, Limitations, and Complementary Tools (CytoViva and GFAAS)
by Kelsey L. Wells, Praveen K. Alla, Kyra G. Kaiser, Ioana T. Murgulet, Norma C. Adragna and Ioana E. Pavel
Chemosensors 2023, 11(7), 353; https://doi.org/10.3390/chemosensors11070353 - 21 Jun 2023
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1808
Abstract
Herein, Raman and surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopies (SERS) were successfully employed to establish the chemical interactions of citrate-capped silver nanoparticles (AgNPs, 10–15 nm) with human red blood cells (RBCs). The Raman/SERS spectra offered spectral evidence for the cellular uptake of AgNPs and the subsequent [...] Read more.
Herein, Raman and surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopies (SERS) were successfully employed to establish the chemical interactions of citrate-capped silver nanoparticles (AgNPs, 10–15 nm) with human red blood cells (RBCs). The Raman/SERS spectra offered spectral evidence for the cellular uptake of AgNPs and the subsequent change in the conformation of the most abundant component, hemoglobin (Hb), from oxyhemoglobin to deoxyhemoglobin. The spectral characterization of AgNPs’ interactions with other RBC biomarkers (membrane proteins and lipids) was impeded by the dominant Hb bands, even for non-resonant Hb conditions. CytoViva hyperspectral imaging and graphite furnace atomic absorption spectroscopy (GFAAS) served as complementary tools to effectively address the challenges related to a single excitation line (632.8 nm) and the resolution of the confocal Raman microscope (0.5–1.0 µm). CytoViva confirmed the RBC-AgNP interactions through hyperspectral signatures and facilitated the label-free localization of AgNPs extracellularly and intracellularly. Irreversible agglutination of RBCs was noted after 24 h of exposure, raising concerns about the toxicity of AgNPs of biocompatible citrate coatings. GFAAS validated the Raman/SERS results by quantifying the proportion of AgNPs absorbed by RBCs, which was significant (~48% AgNPs by mass), mostly at the membrane (60% RBCs), and size dependent (no large AgNPs or AgNP-aggregates in RBCs, after 12–24 h). Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Surface-Enhanced Raman Spectroscopy for Bioanalytics)
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