In Vivo Imaging and Tumour Targeting

In the last 5-8 years, there has been a progression in the number of studies reporting on in vivo and the clinical use of the SERS spectroscopy (Zavaleta et al. 2011). 

The SWNTs were also tested as tumour targeting nanostructures (Keren et al. 2008 Zavaleta et al. 2008). SWNTs have a very small diameter of 3 nm and a length of 200 nm. Moreover, the high aspect ratio of the carbon structure of SWNTs is ideal for bioconjugation. SWNTs provide intense and inherent Raman peak 

The first multiplex imaging of ten different SERS tags upon subcutaneous injection in ten separate areas of a living mouse was reported by Zavaleta et al. (2009). Each SERS tag (Oxonica Materials, Mountain View, CA) consisted of a unique RRM layer adsorbed onto a Au core (60 nm diameter) coated with silica, making the entire diameter of the NP 120 nm (Fig. 7.18a). 10 separate 

SiKca Coating Raman Active Layer Gold Core 

NIR-IR range are definitely required for in vivo SERS applications. The Au NRs or Au nanostars (Rodriguez-Lorenzo et al. 2011) were found to be suitable nanostructures providing high SERS enhancement in NlR-IR. Au NRs coated with PEG polymers and various RRMs were presented as an efficient platform for multiplex in vivo SERS detection within NlR-lR excitation (Qian et al. 2011 von Maltzahn et al. 2009 Jokerst et al. 2012). Au NRs were found to be highly stable, to be detectable down to femtomolar concentrations and to have low baseline cytotoxicity (von Maltzahn et al. 2009). 

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