title: Single Plasmonic Nanosprings for Visualizing Reactive-Oxygen-Species-Activated Localized Mechanical Force Transduction in Live Cells.
abstract: Mechanical force signaling in cells has been regarded as the biological foundation of various important physiological functions. To understand the nature of these biological and physiological processes, imaging and determining the mechanical signal transduction dynamics in live cells are required. Herein, we proposed a strategy to determine mechanical force as well as its changes with single-particle dark-field spectral microscopy by using a single plasmonic nanospring as a mechanical sensor, which can transfer force-induced molecular extension/compression into spectral responses. With this robust plasmonic nanospring, we achieved the visualization of activation of localized mechanical force transduction in single live cells triggered by reactive-oxygen-species (ROS) stimulation. The successful demonstration of a biochemical ROS signal to mechanical signal conversion suggested this strategy is promising for studying mechanical force signaling and regulation in live biological systems.
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Chemo/Biosensing and Chemometrics, College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, College of Biology, Hunan University , Changsha, 410082, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Bin
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Xiong
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Chemo/Biosensing and Chemometrics, College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, College of Biology, Hunan University , Changsha, 410082, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Zhenrong
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Huang
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Luminescent and Real-Time Analytical Chemistry, Ministry of Education, College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Southwest University , Chongqing, 400715, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Hongyan
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Zou
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Chemo/Biosensing and Chemometrics, College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, College of Biology, Hunan University , Changsha, 410082, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Chunyan
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Qiao
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Chemo/Biosensing and Chemometrics, College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, College of Biology, Hunan University , Changsha, 410082, People's Republic of China.|Department of Chemistry, Tsinghua University , Beijing, 100084, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Yan
authors.identifier: 0000-0001-7133-0558
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: He
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Chemo/Biosensing and Chemometrics, College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, College of Biology, Hunan University , Changsha, 410082, People's Republic of China.|Department of Chemistry, Iowa State University , Ames, Iowa 50011, United States.
authors.forename: Edward S
authors.initials: ES
authors.lastname: Yeung
mesh_terms: D006367:HeLa Cells; D006801:Humans; D040542:Mechanotransduction, Cellular; D053758:Nanoparticles / Q000737:chemistry*; D061848:Optical Imaging; D017382:Reactive Oxygen Species / Q000378:metabolism*; D020349:Surface Plasmon Resonance; D014407:Tumor Cells, Cultured
chemical_list: D017382:Reactive Oxygen Species
keywords: force transduction; plasmonic nanosprings; reactive-oxygen-species signaling; single-cell imaging; single-particle spectral imaging