TY - JOUR
T1 - Detection of low-quantity anticancer drugs by surface-enhanced Raman scattering
AU - Litti, Lucio
AU - Amendola, Vincenzo
AU - Toffoli, Giuseppe
AU - Meneghetti, Moreno
PY - 2016
Y1 - 2016
N2 - Ultrasensitive detection of low-quantity drugs is important for personalized therapeutic approaches in several diseases and, in particular, for cancer treatment. In this field, surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) can be very useful for its ability to precisely identify analytes from their unique vibrational spectra, with very high sensitivity. Here, we report a study about SERS detection of sunitinib, paclitaxel and irinotecan, i.e. three commonly used antineoplastic drugs, and of SN-38, i.e. the metabolite of irinotecan, dissolved in methanol solutions. By using commercial Klarite substrates, we found that sunitinib, irinotecan and SN-38 have detection limits of 20–70 ng, which is below the threshold for applications in cancer therapy. Conversely, the SERS signal was not appreciable with paclitaxel, and this is explained by the absence of optical resonances in the visible range. Overall, our results show that ultrasensitive SERS detection of sunitinib, irinotecan and SN-38 is feasible, encouraging further development of this technology also for other drugs with similar molecular structure especially for those analytes with absorption bands in the visible range.
AB - Ultrasensitive detection of low-quantity drugs is important for personalized therapeutic approaches in several diseases and, in particular, for cancer treatment. In this field, surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) can be very useful for its ability to precisely identify analytes from their unique vibrational spectra, with very high sensitivity. Here, we report a study about SERS detection of sunitinib, paclitaxel and irinotecan, i.e. three commonly used antineoplastic drugs, and of SN-38, i.e. the metabolite of irinotecan, dissolved in methanol solutions. By using commercial Klarite substrates, we found that sunitinib, irinotecan and SN-38 have detection limits of 20–70 ng, which is below the threshold for applications in cancer therapy. Conversely, the SERS signal was not appreciable with paclitaxel, and this is explained by the absence of optical resonances in the visible range. Overall, our results show that ultrasensitive SERS detection of sunitinib, irinotecan and SN-38 is feasible, encouraging further development of this technology also for other drugs with similar molecular structure especially for those analytes with absorption bands in the visible range.
KW - Anticancer drugs
KW - CPT-11
KW - Doxorubicin
KW - Irinotecan
KW - Paclitaxel
KW - SERS
KW - SN-38
KW - Sunitinib
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UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=84961287027&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1007/s00216-016-9315-4
DO - 10.1007/s00216-016-9315-4
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:84961287027
SP - 2123
EP - 2131
JO - Fresenius Journal of Analytical Chemistry
JF - Fresenius Journal of Analytical Chemistry
SN - 0016-1152
ER -