title: SERS nanoprobes for the monitoring of endogenous nitric oxide in living cells.
abstract: Nitric Oxide (NO) is a significant gaseous signalling molecule in various pathological and physiological pathways, whereas many of its functions are still ambiguous in part because of the shortage of powerful detection approaches. Herein, we present a type of reaction-based surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) nanoprobes, o-phenylenediamine-modified gold nanoparticles (AuNPs/OPD), to detect the level of the endogenous NO in living cells. The detection is achieved through the SERS variation of AuNPs/OPD caused by the reaction between NO and OPD on the surface of AuNPs. The proposed SERS nanoprobes have a good stability and a rapid response to NO within 30s Moreover, as a result of the reaction specificity coupled with SERS fingerprinting, AuNPs/OPD nanoprobes demonstrate high selectivity towards NO over other biologically relevant species with a sensitivity at 10(-7)M level. Thereby, this SERS strategy can be used for monitoring NO that is endogenously produced in living macrophages, indicating immense potential in studying NO-involved pathophysiological processes in biological systems.
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory for Advanced Materials, Shanghai Key Laboratory of Functional Materials Chemistry & Department of Chemistry, East China University of Science and Technology, 130 Meilong Road, Shanghai 200237, PR China.
authors.forename: Jing
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Cui
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory for Advanced Materials, Shanghai Key Laboratory of Functional Materials Chemistry & Department of Chemistry, East China University of Science and Technology, 130 Meilong Road, Shanghai 200237, PR China.
authors.forename: Kai
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Hu
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory for Advanced Materials, Shanghai Key Laboratory of Functional Materials Chemistry & Department of Chemistry, East China University of Science and Technology, 130 Meilong Road, Shanghai 200237, PR China.
authors.forename: Jia-Jia
authors.initials: JJ
authors.lastname: Sun
authors.affiliation: School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Jiangsu Normal University, Xuzhou, Jiangsu 221116, PR China.
authors.forename: Lu-Lu
authors.initials: LL
authors.lastname: Qu
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory for Advanced Materials, Shanghai Key Laboratory of Functional Materials Chemistry & Department of Chemistry, East China University of Science and Technology, 130 Meilong Road, Shanghai 200237, PR China. Electronic address: daweili@ecust.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Da-Wei
authors.initials: DW
authors.lastname: Li
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D015374:Biosensing Techniques / Q000379:methods; D006046:Gold / Q000737:chemistry*; D053768:Metal Nanoparticles / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000648:ultrastructure; D051379:Mice; D009569:Nitric Oxide / Q000032:analysis*; D010655:Phenylenediamines / Q000737:chemistry; D000067996:RAW 264.7 Cells; D013059:Spectrum Analysis, Raman / Q000379:methods*
chemical_list: D010655:Phenylenediamines; D009569:Nitric Oxide; D006046:Gold; C034193:1,2-diaminobenzene
keywords: Living cells; Monitoring; Nitric oxide; SERS