Rapid Surface-enhanced Raman Scattering Research Articles

Raman tracking the activity of urease in saliva for healthcare

The detection of urease activity in the oral cavity is considered to be an efficient way to prevent dental caries and also to screen for helicobacter pylori infection. Herein, a rapid surface enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) method is proposed to determine the activity of urease by using inositol hexaphosphate (IP6) stabilized silver nanoparticles (AgNPs@IP6) as an efficient SERS-active substrate. The determination was achieved by monitoring the SERS peak intensity of urea at 1003 cm−1. With urease increase, the response of urea at 1003 cm−1 decreases gradually, indicating the two has good correlation. A linear relationship between the absolute value of signal drop and urease concentration is observed in a range from 2.35 to 37.5 μg/mL. In addition, the rapid SERS method was used to evaluate the activity of urease in real sample of saliva without any pretreatment, exhibiting a promising potential for biomedical application.

Rapid Surface Enhanced Raman Scattering (SERS) Detection of Sibutramine Hydrochloride in Pharmaceutical Capsules with a β-Cyclodextrin- Ag/Polyvivnyl Alcohol Hydrogel Substrate.

Sibutramine hydrochloride (SH) is a banned weight-loss drug, but its illegal addition to health products is still rampant. This suggests a very urgent need for a fast and precise detection method for SH. Surface Enhanced Raman Scattering (SERS) is a promising candidate for this purpose, but the weak affinity between SH and bare metal limits its direct SERS detection. In the present work, β-cyclodextrin was capped in situ onto the surface of Ag nanoparticles to function as a scaffold to capture SH. The obtained Ag nanoparticles were encapsulated into polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) to fabricate a SERS active hydrogel with excellent reproducibility. A facile SERS strategy based on such substrate was proposed for trace SH quantification with a linear range of 7.0–150.0 µg·mL–1, and a detection limit low to 3.0 µg·mL−1. It was applied to analyze seven types of commercial slimming capsules with satisfactory results, showing good prospect for real applications.