Bioorthogonal SERS Nanoprobes for Mulitplex Spectroscopic Detection, Tumor Cell Targeting, and Tissue Imaging.

A surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) technique shows extraordinary features for a range of biological and biomedical applications. Herein, a series of novel bioorthogonal SERS nanoprobes were constructed with Gold nanoflower (AuNF) and Raman reporters, the signals of which were located in a Raman-silent region of biological samples. AS1411 aptamer was also co-conjugated with AuNF through a self-assembled monolayer coverage strategy. Multiplex SERS imaging using these nanoprobes with three different bioorthogonal small-molecule Raman reporters is successfully achieved with high multiplexing capacity in a biologically Raman-silent region. These Raman nanoprobes co-conjugated with AS1411 showed high affinity for tumor cells with overexpressed nucleolin and can be used for selective tumor cell screening and tissue imaging.