title: Fast Optical Chemical and Structural Classification of RNA.
abstract: As more biological activities of ribonucleic acids continue to emerge, the development of efficient analytical tools for RNA identification and characterization is necessary to acquire an in-depth understanding of their functions and chemical properties. Herein, we demonstrate the capacity of label-free direct surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) analysis to access highly specific structural information on RNAs at the ultrasensitive level. This includes the recognition of distinctive vibrational features of RNAs organized into a variety of conformations (micro-, fully complementary duplex-, small interfering- and short hairpin-RNAs) or characterized by subtle chemical differences (single-base variances, nucleobase modifications and backbone composition). This method represents a key advance in the ribonucleic acid analysis and will have a direct impact in a wide range of different fields, including medical diagnosis, drug design, and biotechnology, by enabling the rapid, high-throughput, simple, and low-cost identification and classification of structurally similar RNAs.
authors.affiliation: Medcom Advance , Viladecans Business Park, Edificio Brasil, Bertran i Musitu 83-85, 08840 Viladecans, Barcelona, Spain.|Universitat Rovira i Virgili and Centro Tecnológico de la Química de Catalunya , Carrer de Marcel·lí Domingo s/n, 43007 Tarragona, Spain.
authors.forename: Judit
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Morla-Folch
authors.affiliation: Medcom Advance , Viladecans Business Park, Edificio Brasil, Bertran i Musitu 83-85, 08840 Viladecans, Barcelona, Spain.
authors.forename: Hai-nan
authors.initials: HN
authors.lastname: Xie
authors.affiliation: Medcom Advance , Viladecans Business Park, Edificio Brasil, Bertran i Musitu 83-85, 08840 Viladecans, Barcelona, Spain.|Universitat Rovira i Virgili and Centro Tecnológico de la Química de Catalunya , Carrer de Marcel·lí Domingo s/n, 43007 Tarragona, Spain.|ICREA , Passeig Lluís Companys 23, 08010 Barcelona, Spain.
authors.forename: Ramon A
authors.initials: RA
authors.lastname: Alvarez-Puebla
authors.affiliation: Medcom Advance , Viladecans Business Park, Edificio Brasil, Bertran i Musitu 83-85, 08840 Viladecans, Barcelona, Spain.
authors.forename: Luca
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Guerrini
mesh_terms: D001482:Base Composition; D009690:Nucleic Acid Conformation; D012313:RNA / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000145:classification; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D013059:Spectrum Analysis, Raman / Q000379:methods*
chemical_list: D012313:RNA
keywords: RNA; label-free; nanoparticles; plasmonic; surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy