| Popis: |
The purpose of this project was to evaluate Raman-based technologies for early detection of urogenital cancers. Most of the work was directed at improving different components of the surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS)-based immunoassay, analyzing tissue samples with micro-Raman imaging technology, micro-Raman and SERS detection of prostate cancer cells, and SERS detection of exfoliated cells from urine. The most significant findings were as follows. (i) The nitrocellulose membranes were proven to be an effective media for PSA capture. For SERS-based immunoassays, nitrocellulose offers comparable results to those obtained using gold-coated glass substrates while offering a more cost-effective and time-saving method of detecting minute amounts of PSA; (ii) Micro-Raman imaging technology was found to be effective in chemical mapping of arteries in the tissues of a post mortem individual whose cause of death was a cardiac event; (iii) Both micro-Raman and micro-SERS analysis were able to characterize the biochemistry at the molecular level of three types of prostate cancer cell lines (DU145, PC3 and LNCaP); and (iv) Micro-SERS analysis of exfoliated cells from the urine sample of a healthy volunteer showed the potential of the technique as the SERS spectra of individual cells could be measured with 1 s integration time, and various types of cells could be differentiated on the basis of their Raman spectra. |
