Au nanorod assembly for sensitive SERS detection of airway inflammatory factors in sputum

An-Qi Yang; Wentong Zheng; Xiaoyang Chen; Jiayin Wang; Shuang Zhou; Hongzhi Gao

doi:10.3389/fbioe.2023.1256340

Au nanorod assembly for sensitive SERS detection of airway inflammatory factors in sputum

Front Bioeng Biotechnol. 2023 Dec 12:11:1256340. doi: 10.3389/fbioe.2023.1256340. eCollection 2023.

Authors

An-Qi Yang^#^{1

2}, Wentong Zheng^#³, Xiaoyang Chen⁴, Jiayin Wang⁵, Shuang Zhou², Hongzhi Gao^{2

5}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Basic Medicine, Quanzhou Medical College, Quanzhou, China.
² Central Laboratory, Second Affiliated Hospital of Fujian Medical University, Quanzhou, China.
³ Clinic Laboratory, Dehua Hospital, Quanzhou, China.
⁴ Department of Pulmonary and Critical Intensive Medicine, Second Affiliated Hospital of Fujian Medical University, Quanzhou, China.
⁵ Department of Neurosurgery, Second Affiliated Hospital of Fujian Medical University, Quanzhou, China.

^# Contributed equally.

Abstract

In this paper, we demonstrate a surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) biosensor based on the self-assembly of gold nanorods (AuNRs) for the specific detection of airway inflammatory factors in diluted sputum. The AuNR surface was modified with an antibody that was able to specifically recognize an airway inflammatory factor, interleukin-5 (IL-5), so that a end-to-end self-assembly system could be obtained, resulting in an order of magnitude amplification of the Raman signal and greatly improved sensitivity. Meanwhile, the outer layer of the biosensor was coated with silicon dioxide, which improved the stability of the system and facilitated its future applications. When the detected concentration was in the range of 0.1-50 pg/mL, the SERS signal generated by the sensor showed a good linear relationship with the IL-5 concentration. Moreover, it had satisfactory performance in diluted sputum and clinical subjects with asthma, which could achieve sensitive detection of the airway inflammatory factor IL-5. Overall, the developed biosensor based on the SERS effect exhibited the advantages of rapid and sensitive detecting performance, which is suitable for monitoring airway inflammatory factors in sputum.

Keywords: SERS (surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy); asthma; biosensor; inflammatory factor; sputum.

Grants and funding

The author(s) declare financial support was received for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. The authors gratefully acknowledge the financial support from the Natural Science Foundation of Fujian Province of China (No. 2019J01475) and the Health and Education Joint Research Project of Fujian Province (No. 2019-wj-13); we also appreciate the financial support from Amount Biotechnology Co., Limited.