Surface-Enhanced Raman Scattering Technology Based on TiO2 Nanorods for Detection of Telomerase Activity in Cells

The TiO2 nanorods (TiO2 NRs) were prepared by hydrothermal method, and a TiO2 NRs non-metallic surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) biosensor was constructed. With copper phthalocyanine (CuPc) as the adsorbed molecule, the developed TiO2 NRs SERS biosensor revealed remarkable Raman activity. Through experimental data and theoretical calculations, it was found that significant SERS enhancement (Enhancement factor (EF) = 3.18x10(8)) of CuPc was due to the chemical mechanism (CM) based on charge transfer. By utilizing the significant Raman response of CuPc on the TiO2 NRs and the specific recognition of telomere G-quadruplex, TiO2 NRs was used as a SERS biosensor for quantitative and sensitive detection of telomerase activity, with a detection limit down to 2.85x10(-16) IU/L. In addition, due to the high selectivity and high sensitivity, the SERS biosensor was used to determine the telomerase activity as well as the cell numbers in Hela cells, making it an effective way to detect telomerase activity in other cells. This work not only established an approach for studying the Raman enhancement mechanism of semiconductor based on CM, but also paved a new way for the detection of related substances in clinical diagnosis and cell biomedical analysis.