Jiesi Chen

Nasopharyngeal cancer detection based on blood plasma surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy and multivariate analysis

A surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) method was developed for blood plasma biochemical analysis for the first time with the aim to develop a simple blood test for non-invasive nasopharyngeal cancer detection. Silver nanoparticles (Ag NP) as the SERS-active nanostructures were directly mixed with blood plasma to enhance the Raman scattering signals of various biomolecular constituents such as proteins, lipids, and nucleic acids. High quality SERS spectrum from blood plasma-Ag NP mixture can be obtained within 10s using a Renishaw micro-Raman system. SERS measurements were performed on two groups of blood plasma samples: one group from patients (n=43) with pathologically confirmed nasopharyngeal carcinomas (WHO type I, II, and III) and the other group from healthy volunteers (control subjects, n=33). Tentative assignments of the Raman bands in the measured SERS spectra suggest interesting cancer specific biomolecular differences, including an increase in the relative amounts of nucleic acid, collagen, phospholipids and phenylalanine and a decrease in the percentage of amino acids and saccharide contents in the blood plasma of nasopharyngeal cancer patients as compared to that of healthy subjects. Principal component analysis (PCA) of the measured SERS spectra separated the spectral features of the two groups into two distinct clusters with little overlaps. Linear discriminate analysis (LDA) based on the PCA generated features differentiated the nasopharyngeal cancer SERS spectra from normal SERS spectra with high sensitivity (90.7%) and specificity (100%). The results from this exploratory study demonstrated great potentials for developing SERS blood plasma analysis into a novel clinical tool for non-invasive detection of nasopharyngeal cancers.

Gastric cancer detection based on blood plasma surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy excited by polarized laser light

We have recently applied surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) for blood plasma analysis for non-invasive nasopharyngeal cancer detection and obtained good preliminary results. The aim of this study was to develop a more robust SERS spectroscopy based blood plasma analysis method for non-invasive gastric cancer detection. The effect of different laser polarizations (non-polarized, linear-polarized, right-handed circularly polarized, and left-handed circularly polarized) on blood plasma SERS spectroscopy was explored for the first time. Silver nanoparticles as the SERS-substrate were directly mixed with blood plasma to enhance the Raman scattering of various biomolecular constituents. High quality SERS spectra were obtained using a fiber optic probe and a dispersive type near infrared Raman system. Blood plasma samples from gastric cancer patients (n=32) and healthy subjects (n=33) were analyzed. The diagnostic performance for differentiating gastric cancer plasma from normal plasma was evaluated. Principal component analysis combined with linear discriminant analysis (LDA) of the obtained spectral data was used to develop diagnostic algorithms. Classification results obtained from cross-validation of the LDA model based on the four spectral data sets of different laser polarizations demonstrated different diagnostic sensitivities and specificities: 71.9% and 72.7% for non-polarized laser excitation, 75% and 87.9% for linear-polarized laser excitation, 81.3% and 78.8% for right-handed circularly polarized laser excitation, 100% and 97% for left-handed circularly polarized laser excitation. The results from this exploratory study demonstrated that plasma SERS spectroscopy with left-handed circularly polarized laser excitation has great promise of becoming a clinically useful diagnostic tool for non-invasive gastric cancer detection.

Surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy of creatinine in silver colloid

Surface enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) technology has already made great progress in bio-molecule detection. It can make the target molecules strongly absorbed onto the surface of metal nanoparticles, and then the Raman signal of its own has been greatly enhanced through physical and chemical enhancement mechanisms. We report the SERS spectra of creatinine in silver colloid, and study the silver colloid enhanced effects on the Raman scattering of creatinine. We can also find that creatinine concentration is linearly related to its SERS peak intensity and the detection limit of creatinine silver sol is found to be 10 mg/dl. In conclusion, we can observe that the silver colloid has very good enhanced effects for the creatinine. The potential applications of SERS in quantitative measurement of the creatinine liquor are demonstrated. The result shows that the SERS approach would provide a unique and fast test method for creatinine detection.

Microstructure imaging of human rectal mucosa using multiphoton microscopy

Multiphoton microscopy (MPM) has high resolution and sensitivity. In this study, MPM was used to image microstructure of human rectal mucosa. The morphology and distribution of the main components in mucosa layer, absorptive cells and goblet cells in the epithelium, abundant intestinal glands in the lamina propria and smooth muscle fibers in the muscularis mucosa were clearly monitored. The variations of these components were tightly relevant to the pathology in gastrointestine system, especially early rectal cancer. The obtained images will be helpful for the diagnosis of early colorectal cancer.

Characterizing lamina propria of human gastric mucosa by multiphoton microscopy

Lamina propria (LP) of gastric mucosa plays an important role in progression of gastric cancer because of the site at where inflammatory reactions occur. Multiphoton imaging has been recently employed for microscopic examination of intact tissue. In this paper, using multiphoton microscopy (MPM) based on two-photon excited fluorescence (TPEF) and second harmonic generation (SHG), high resolution multiphoton microscopic images of lamina propria (LP) are obtained in normal human gastric mucosa at excitation wavelength ?ex = 800 nm. The main source of tissue TPEF originated from the cells of gastric glands, and loose connective tissue, collagen, produced SHG signals. Our results demonstrated that MPM can be effective for characterizing the microstructure of LP in human gastric mucosa. The findings will be helpful for diagnosing and staging early gastric cancer in the clinics.

Characterization of human normal and cancerous gastric submucosa based on multiphoton microscopy

Gastric cancer is one of the most frequent cancers in the world; almost two-thirds of gastric cancer cases and deaths occur in less developed regions. The initial diagnosis of gastric cancer often is delayed because up to 80 percent of patients are asymptomatic during the early stages of stomach cancer. So the ability to perform real-time in vivo histological diagnosis for early gastric cancer at the cellular level during ongoing endoscopy is a long-standing goal of endoscopists. In this paper, using multiphoton microscopy (MPM) based on two-photon excited fluorescence (TPEF) and second harmonic generation (SHG), MPM images of human normal and cancerous gastric submucosa were obtained at excitation wavelength of 800 nm. The features such as the appearance of abnormal cells and the large loss of collagen in cancerous gastric submucosa were extracted to be as significant indicators to distinguish cancerous submucosa from normal submucosa. With the implementation of multiphoton microscopy concept in endoscopy applications, multiphoton endoscopy might realize in vivo histological diagnosis goal of endoscopists.

A novel nasopharyngeal cancer detection based on plasma SERS combined with PCA-LDA statistical analysis

In order to develop a novel and simple blood test for non-invasive nasopharyngeal cancer detection, a surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) method was presented for blood plasma biochemical analysis. High quality SERS spectrum from human plasma-Ag NP mixture can be obtained using a confocal Raman system. SERS measurements were performed on normal and cancer groups of plasma samples. The measured SERS spectra revealed some specific biomolecular differences in nasopharyngeal cancer plasma. Principal component analysis of the measured SERS spectra separated the spectral features of the two groups into two distinct clusters with little overlaps. Linear discriminate analysis based on the PCA generated features differentiated the nasopharyngeal cancer SERS spectra from normal SERS spectra with high sensitivity (97.7%) and specificity (100%). The results from this exploratory study illustrated great promising for developing SERS human plasma analysis into a clinical tool for non-invasive detection of nasopharyngeal cancers.

The surface enhanced Raman spectroscopy of DCM in silver colloid

The surface enhanced Raman spectroscopy of DCM dye was firstly present in this paper. We have studied their chloride ion effects on the surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) activities of the silver solution. For the positive charge dyes, no SERS could be observed without the addition of chloride ions for lack of the electrostatic interaction. The chloride ions served to enlarge silver particles and to contribute the existence of the surface active sites, making the silver solution SERS active to the dye samples. With the change of the DCM concentration, the SERS of DCM show significant change in their features, indicating different orientation changes of the molecule on the colloidal silver surface with DCM concentration. The broad long-wavelength band in the absorption spectra of the silver sol with added DCM at certain concentrations has been explained in terms of the aggregation of the colloidal silver particles.