title: Building Electromagnetic Hot Spots in Living Cells via Target-Triggered Nanoparticle Dimerization.
abstract: Electromagnetic hot spots of surface-enhanced Raman scattering have been extensively employed for bioanalysis in solution or on a substrate, but building hot spots in living systems for probing targets of interest has not been achieved yet because of the complex and dynamic physiological environment. Herein, we show that a target-programmed nanoparticle dimerization can be combined with the background-free Raman reporters (alkyne, C≡C; nitrile, C≡N) for multiplexed imaging of microRNAs (miRNAs) in living cells. The in situ formation of plasmonic dimers results in an intense hot spot, thus dramatically enhancing the Raman signals of the reporters residing in the hot spot. More significantly, the reporters exhibit single nonoverlapping peaks in the cellular Raman-silent region (1800-2800 cm-1), thus eliminating spectral unmixing and background interference. A 3D Raman mapping technique was harnessed to monitor the spatial distribution of the dimers and thus the multiple miRNAs in cells. This approach could be extended to probe other biomarkers of interest for monitoring specific pathophysiological events at the live-cell level.
authors.affiliation: College of Chemistry, Research Center for Analytical Sciences, State Key Laboratory of Medicinal Chemical Biology, and Tianjin Key Laboratory of Molecular Recognition and Biosensing, Nankai University , Tianjin 300071, China.|Collaborative Innovation Center of Chemical Science and Engineering (Tianjin) , Tianjin 300071, China.
authors.forename: Wen
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Zhou
authors.affiliation: College of Chemistry, Research Center for Analytical Sciences, State Key Laboratory of Medicinal Chemical Biology, and Tianjin Key Laboratory of Molecular Recognition and Biosensing, Nankai University , Tianjin 300071, China.
authors.forename: Qiang
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: College of Chemistry, Research Center for Analytical Sciences, State Key Laboratory of Medicinal Chemical Biology, and Tianjin Key Laboratory of Molecular Recognition and Biosensing, Nankai University , Tianjin 300071, China.
authors.forename: Huiqiao
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: College of Chemistry, Research Center for Analytical Sciences, State Key Laboratory of Medicinal Chemical Biology, and Tianjin Key Laboratory of Molecular Recognition and Biosensing, Nankai University , Tianjin 300071, China.
authors.forename: Jie
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.affiliation: College of Chemistry, Research Center for Analytical Sciences, State Key Laboratory of Medicinal Chemical Biology, and Tianjin Key Laboratory of Molecular Recognition and Biosensing, Nankai University , Tianjin 300071, China.|Collaborative Innovation Center of Chemical Science and Engineering (Tianjin) , Tianjin 300071, China.
authors.forename: Dingbin
authors.identifier: 0000-0003-4153-9822
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Liu
mesh_terms: D002478:Cells, Cultured; D019281:Dimerization; D055590:Electromagnetic Phenomena; D006046:Gold / Q000737:chemistry*; D057809:HEK293 Cells; D006367:HeLa Cells; D006801:Humans; D061986:MCF-7 Cells; D053768:Metal Nanoparticles / Q000737:chemistry*; D035683:MicroRNAs / Q000032:analysis / Q000235:genetics / Q000302:isolation & purification; D015394:Molecular Structure; D009942:Organometallic Compounds / Q000138:chemical synthesis / Q000737:chemistry*; D010316:Particle Size; D013056:Spectrophotometry, Ultraviolet; D013059:Spectrum Analysis, Raman; D013499:Surface Properties
chemical_list: D035683:MicroRNAs; D009942:Organometallic Compounds; D006046:Gold
keywords: hot spots; microRNAs; molecular imaging; nanoparticle assembly; surface-enhanced Raman scattering