Silver Nanostar Patterned Substrate for Label-Free Characterization of Breast Cancer Cells based on Surface-Enhanced Raman Spectroscopy

Characterization of cancer cells is important in case of personalized cancer therapy. Cells can be characterized based on their surface marker expression level using fluorescence or surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) method, but in both cases its needed additional labeling with fluorescent or Raman dyes, those may cause cellular cytotoxicity. In this study, we report silver (Ag) nanostar pattern modified ITO substrate capable of label free characterization of breast cancer cells based on SERS. The substrate was fabricated by depositing homogeneously distributed silver nanostar pattern on ITO-glass surface electrochemically. The substrate was capable to produce highly intense SERS spectra in comparison to gold nanopattern modified substrate. Two different subtypes of breast cancer cells (SK-BR-3 and MCF-7) were immobilized on the substrate separately and successfully distinguished based on the molecular information detected by SERS. Our newly developed substrate can be used as an effective platform for molecular detection and characterization of different cells originated from same or different organs.