3D gellan gum hydrogel as a SERS sensing platform

Cancer is the second high mortality disease and so, there is an urgent need for new diagnostic and treatment follow-up tools, which allow its early detection continuous monitoring. Therefore, a new generation of biosensors, with improved performance has been developed. Among the different materials to support 3D biosensors, hydrogel-based systems are considered advantageous, since they provide the ideal conditions to immobilize cells and secreted metabolites within the 3D matrix towards specific sensing.¹  For instance, the real-time monitorization of lactate levels extremely important, since the accumulation of lactate in solid tumors leads to disease progression.²

Surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) spectroscopy has demonstrated to be a powerful analytical tool, offering high sensitivity and selectivity, structural information and multiplexing capacity. The combination of hydrogels and nanoparticles has gained increasing attention in SERS, since the nanoparticles enable a closer interaction with the target molecules and increase the surface/volume ratio, drastically improving the biosensor performance. ³ 

In this study was developed a hybrid novel material, by embedding gold-based nanoparticles into gellan gum “spongy-like” hydrogels (GG-SLH), to be used as a SERS substrate for lactate detection. The incorporation’s efficiency of the nanoparticles as well as their morphology, homogeneity and distribution were evaluated. Finally, the 3D nanoparticle loaded GG-SLH was used to detect lactate, demonstrating the great potential of this hybrid material as a sensing platform.

1         B. Sharma, M. Fernanda Cardinal, S. L. Kleinman, N. G. Greeneltch, R. R. Frontiera, M. G. Blaber, G. C. Schatz and R. P. Van Duyne, MRS Bull., 2013, 38, 615.

2         I. San-Millán and G. A. Brooks, Carcinogenesis, 2017, 38, 119–133.

3         K. Kant, S. Abalde-Cela, K. Kant and S. Abalde-Cela, Biosensors, 2018, 8, 62.