Discrimination of Receptor-Mediated Endocytosis by Surface-Enhanced Raman Scattering.

Area of Science:

• Cellular Biology
• Biophysics
• Spectroscopy

Background:

• Cellular energy is primarily stored as adenosine triphosphate (ATP).
• ATP-dependent processes like endocytosis are vital for cellular functions, disease, and drug development.
• Surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) offers label-free molecular insights into living cells.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate receptor-mediated endocytosis using SERS.
• To assess the impact of ATP depletion on cellular mechanisms.
• To evaluate SERS as a tool for tracking endocytosis in real-time.

Main Methods:

• Utilized SERS to monitor receptor-mediated endocytosis in Beas-2b, PNT1A, and HeLa cells.
• Inhibited endocytosis using ATP depletion agents: sodium azide (NaN3) and 2-deoxy-d-glucose (dG).
• Performed cytotoxicity, apoptosis-necrosis, ATP assays, and uptake inhibition analysis.

Main Results:

• SERS successfully discriminated the effects of different ATP depletion agents.
• Spectral changes correlated with the inhibition of receptor-mediated endocytosis.
• The study demonstrated SERS's capability for label-free tracking of endocytosis in single living cells.

Conclusions:

• SERS is a powerful technique for studying ATP-dependent cellular processes like endocytosis.
• SERS provides label-free, real-time monitoring of receptor-mediated endocytosis with minimal sample preparation.
• This method holds potential for disease diagnosis and therapeutic development.