Quantitative and Specific Detection of Blood Biomarkers for Accurate Prediction of White Matter Lesions with Cognitive Dysfunction Using Dendrite Gold Nanostar-Based Surface-Enhanced Raman Scattering Barcode Chips

Early diagnosis and subsequently prompt treatment forwhite matterlesions (WMLs) are in close relation with the improvement of patientprognosis. However, conventional diagnosis relying on magnetic resonanceimaging imaging remains expensive and inconvenient, which makes thesearch for a simple and sensitive diagnosis a top priority. Herein,a visible surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS)-assisted barcodechip was designed for quantitative and dynamic detection of WML-relatedblood biomarkers, by utilizing SERS label-embedded dendrite gold nanostar-targetmolecule antibodies in blood samples. Through this assembly, ultrasensitivebiomarker detection for matrix metalloproteinase (MMP-9), solubleplatelet-derived growth factor receptor, and major facilitator superfamilydomain containing Mfsd2a was achieved with a wide range of 1 fg/mLto 1 mg/mL and a detection limit of 1 fg/mL in blood. Meanwhile, enzyme-linkedimmunosorbent assay was also conducted and had proved the feasibilityof this SERS-assisted barcode chip. The results not only indicatedthat these three molecules were ideal surrogates for predicting WMLprogression but also provided a promising strategy for visual assessmentand quantitative measurement of WML-related biomarkers and would havetremendous potential in biomedical and clinical applications.