Non-invasive monitoring of intracellular ROS variations by highly complementary dual signal alloy probes under...

Simple and effective monitoring of intracellular reactive oxygen species (ROS) variations caused by external oxidative stresses is very important in the biomedical field. However, there are many challenges in monitoring the ROS variations. It should consider both the entire cell population and individual cell, and whether it has the ability to monitor dynamically for a long time. In addition, a very important consideration is the generation of additional ROS caused by the monitoring process. Around these perspectives, in this study, an alloy-type probe displaying both circular dichroism (CD) and Raman signals is precisely designed and prepared. When cells are subjected to oxidative stress, the silver-element helical stripes on the surface of the intracellular alloy-type probe are etched by the generated ROS, resulting in a simultaneous decrease in the CD and Raman signals from the probe. The variation of ROS in macroscopic cell populations and individual cell can be monitored by CD and Raman, respectively. It is noteworthy that the monitoring process based on the present probe completely avoids the generation of additional ROS, which may be caused by the excitation light. The strategy proposed in this research improves the methods for monitoring intracellular ROS variation and provides a guiding framework for the design of probe materials in the future.