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Vardaki MZ, Gregoriou VG, Chochos CL. Biomedical applications, perspectives and tag design concepts in the cell - silent Raman window. RSC Chem Biol 2024; 5:273-292. [PMID: 38576725 PMCID: PMC10989507 DOI: 10.1039/d3cb00217a] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/06/2023] [Accepted: 02/12/2024] [Indexed: 04/06/2024] Open
Abstract
Spectroscopic studies increasingly employ Raman tags exhibiting a signal in the cell - silent region of the Raman spectrum (1800-2800 cm-1), where bands arising from biological molecules are inherently absent. Raman tags bearing functional groups which contain a triple bond, such as alkyne and nitrile or a carbon-deuterium bond, have a distinct vibrational frequency in this region. Due to the lack of spectral background and cell-associated bands in the specific area, the implementation of those tags can help overcome the inherently poor signal-to-noise ratio and presence of overlapping Raman bands in measurements of biological samples. The cell - silent Raman tags allow for bioorthogonal imaging of biomolecules with improved chemical contrast and they have found application in analyte detection and monitoring, biomarker profiling and live cell imaging. This review focuses on the potential of the cell - silent Raman region, reporting on the tags employed for biomedical applications using variants of Raman spectroscopy.
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Affiliation(s)
- Martha Z Vardaki
- Institute of Chemical Biology, National Hellenic Research Foundation, 48 Vassileos Constantinou Avenue Athens 11635 Greece
| | - Vasilis G Gregoriou
- Institute of Chemical Biology, National Hellenic Research Foundation, 48 Vassileos Constantinou Avenue Athens 11635 Greece
- Advent Technologies SA, Stadiou Street, Platani Rio Patras 26504 Greece
| | - Christos L Chochos
- Institute of Chemical Biology, National Hellenic Research Foundation, 48 Vassileos Constantinou Avenue Athens 11635 Greece
- Advent Technologies SA, Stadiou Street, Platani Rio Patras 26504 Greece
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Petrokilidou C, Gaitanis G, Velegraki A, Bassukas ID, Kourkoumelis N. Treatment of nail clippings with ethyl alcohol improves the efficacy of Raman spectroscopy in the diagnosis of Trichophyton rubrum onychomycosis. JOURNAL OF BIOPHOTONICS 2023:e202300040. [PMID: 37071082 DOI: 10.1002/jbio.202300040] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/06/2023] [Revised: 04/11/2023] [Accepted: 04/14/2023] [Indexed: 06/19/2023]
Abstract
The purpose of this work was to enhance the diagnostic accuracy of nail Raman spectroscopy for fungal nail infections, specifically onychomycosis caused by Trichophyton rubrum. The study assessed the different ethyl alcohol retention rates between control and infected nails after soaking nail clippings in ethanolic solutions and drying. Results revealed that ethyl alcohol completely evaporated from infected nail samples, while significant amounts were still present in control samples. Principal component analysis (PCA) was applied to discriminate control from infected nails and showed superior group separation when nails were treated with ethyl alcohol. PCA loadings plot attributed the efficient classification to the νs (CCO) Raman vibrational mode of ethyl alcohol. As Raman spectroscopy can detect minute concentration changes of ethyl alcohol in nails and the deterioration caused by onychomycosis accelerates its evaporation, a simple and rapid method for detecting T. rubrum onychomycosis is proposed.
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Affiliation(s)
- Chrysoula Petrokilidou
- Department of Medical Physics, School of Health Sciences, University of Ioannina, Ioannina, Greece
| | - Georgios Gaitanis
- Department of Skin and Venereal Diseases, Faculty of Medicine, School of Health Sciences, University of Ioannina, Ioannina, Greece
| | - Aristea Velegraki
- Mycology Research Laboratory and UOA/HCPF Culture Collection, Microbiology Department, Medical School, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Athens, Greece
- Mycology Laboratory, BIOMEDICINE S.A., Athens, Greece
| | - Ioannis D Bassukas
- Department of Skin and Venereal Diseases, Faculty of Medicine, School of Health Sciences, University of Ioannina, Ioannina, Greece
| | - Nikolaos Kourkoumelis
- Department of Medical Physics, School of Health Sciences, University of Ioannina, Ioannina, Greece
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Gupta AK, Hall DC, Cooper EA, Ghannoum MA. Diagnosing Onychomycosis: What’s New? J Fungi (Basel) 2022; 8:jof8050464. [PMID: 35628720 PMCID: PMC9146047 DOI: 10.3390/jof8050464] [Citation(s) in RCA: 11] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/12/2022] [Revised: 04/26/2022] [Accepted: 04/27/2022] [Indexed: 02/05/2023] Open
Abstract
An overview of the long-established methods of diagnosing onychomycosis (potassium hydroxide testing, fungal culture, and histopathological examination) is provided followed by an outline of other diagnostic methods currently in use or under development. These methods generally use one of two diagnostic techniques: visual identification of infection (fungal elements or onychomycosis signs) or organism identification (typing of fungal genus/species). Visual diagnosis (dermoscopy, optical coherence tomography, confocal microscopy, UV fluorescence excitation) provides clinical evidence of infection, but may be limited by lack of organism information when treatment decisions are needed. The organism identification methods (lateral flow techniques, polymerase chain reaction, MALDI-TOF mass spectroscopy and Raman spectroscopy) seek to provide faster and more reliable identification than standard fungal culture methods. Additionally, artificial intelligence methods are being applied to assist with visual identification, with good success. Despite being considered the ‘gold standard’ for diagnosis, clinicians are generally well aware that the established methods have many limitations for diagnosis. The new techniques seek to augment established methods, but also have advantages and disadvantages relative to their diagnostic use. It remains to be seen which of the newer methods will become more widely used for diagnosis of onychomycosis. Clinicians need to be aware of the limitations of diagnostic utility calculations as well, and look beyond the numbers to assess which techniques will provide the best options for patient assessment and management.
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Affiliation(s)
- Aditya K. Gupta
- Department of Medicine, Division of Dermatology, University of Toronto School of Medicine, Toronto, ON M5S 3H2, Canada
- Mediprobe Research Inc., London, ON N5X 2P1, Canada; (D.C.H.); (E.A.C.)
- Correspondence: ; Tel.: +1-519-851-9715; Fax: +1-519-657-4233
| | - Deanna C. Hall
- Mediprobe Research Inc., London, ON N5X 2P1, Canada; (D.C.H.); (E.A.C.)
| | | | - Mahmoud A. Ghannoum
- Center for Medical Mycology, Department of Dermatology, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH 44106, USA;
- Department of Dermatology, University Hospitals Cleveland Medical Center, Cleveland, OH 44106, USA
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Assessment of Skin Deep Layer Biochemical Profile Using Spatially Offset Raman Spectroscopy. APPLIED SCIENCES-BASEL 2021. [DOI: 10.3390/app11209498] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/25/2022]
Abstract
Skin cancer is currently the most common type of cancer with millions of cases diagnosed worldwide yearly. The current gold standard for clinical diagnosis of skin cancer is an invasive and relatively time-consuming procedure, consisting of visual examination followed by biopsy collection and histopathological analysis. Raman spectroscopy has been shown to efficiently aid the non-invasive diagnosis of skin cancer when probing the surface of the skin. In this study, we employ a recent development of Raman spectroscopy (Spatially Offset Raman Spectroscopy, SORS) which is able to look deeper in tissue and create a deep layer biochemical profile of the skin in areas where cancer lesions subtly evolve. After optimizing the measurement parameters on skin tissue phantoms, we then adopted SORS on human skin tissue from different anatomical areas to investigate the contribution of the different skin layers to the recorded Raman signal. Our results show that using a diffuse beam with zero offset to probe a sampling volume where the lesion is typically included (surface to epidermis-dermis junction), provides the optimum signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and may be employed in future skin cancer screening applications.
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Sakkas H, Kittas C, Kapnisi G, Priavali E, Kallinteri A, Bassukas ID, Gartzonika K. Onychomycosis in Northwestern Greece Over a 7-Year Period. Pathogens 2020; 9:pathogens9100851. [PMID: 33080905 PMCID: PMC7603248 DOI: 10.3390/pathogens9100851] [Citation(s) in RCA: 11] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/31/2020] [Revised: 10/13/2020] [Accepted: 10/16/2020] [Indexed: 11/16/2022] Open
Abstract
Onychomycosis is considered as one of the major public health problems with a global distribution associated with geographic, demographic and environmental factors, underlying comorbidities and immunodeficiency disorders. This study was conducted to investigate the etiological agents of onychomycosis, in Northwestern Greece during a 7-year period. The study population included 1095 outpatients with clinically suspected onychomycosis that presented to the University Hospital of Ioannina, NW Greece (2011–2017). Samples were examined for causative fungi, and mycological identification was established using standard mycological methods. Demographic data of each patient, comorbidities, localization of infection and history of previous fungal infection were collected. Onychomycosis was diagnosed in 317 of the 1095 suspected cases (28.9%) and the most frequently isolated pathogens were yeasts (50.8%) followed by dermatophytes (36.9%) and non-dermatophyte molds (NDMs) (12.3%). Dermatophytes were mostly involved in toenail onychomycosis (90.6%) and more commonly affected males than females (57.3% vs. 42.7%), while the predominantly isolated pathogen was Τrichophyton rubrum (74.4%) followed by Τrichophyton interdigitale (21.4%). Candida albicans was the most prevalent isolated yeast (82%), whereas among the cases with onychomycosis due to NDMs, Aspergillus spp. were isolated as the principal species (59%). Continuous monitoring should be performed in order to identify possible trends and shifts in species isolation rates and to evaluate the impact of onychomycosis among the general population and high-risk groups.
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Affiliation(s)
- Hercules Sakkas
- Microbiology Department, Faculty of Medicine, School of Health Sciences, University of Ioannina, 45110 Ioannina, Greece
- Department of Microbiology, University Hospital of Ioannina, 45110 Ioannina, Greece; (C.K.); (G.K.); (E.P.); (A.K.)
- Correspondence: (H.S.); (K.G.); Tel.: +30-265-100-7769 (H.S.); +30-265-100-7716 (K.G.)
| | - Christos Kittas
- Department of Microbiology, University Hospital of Ioannina, 45110 Ioannina, Greece; (C.K.); (G.K.); (E.P.); (A.K.)
| | - Georgia Kapnisi
- Department of Microbiology, University Hospital of Ioannina, 45110 Ioannina, Greece; (C.K.); (G.K.); (E.P.); (A.K.)
| | - Efthalia Priavali
- Department of Microbiology, University Hospital of Ioannina, 45110 Ioannina, Greece; (C.K.); (G.K.); (E.P.); (A.K.)
| | - Amalia Kallinteri
- Department of Microbiology, University Hospital of Ioannina, 45110 Ioannina, Greece; (C.K.); (G.K.); (E.P.); (A.K.)
| | - Ioannis D. Bassukas
- Department of Skin and Venereal Diseases, Faculty of Medicine, School of Health Sciences, University of Ioannina, 45110 Ioannina, Greece;
| | - Konstantina Gartzonika
- Microbiology Department, Faculty of Medicine, School of Health Sciences, University of Ioannina, 45110 Ioannina, Greece
- Department of Microbiology, University Hospital of Ioannina, 45110 Ioannina, Greece; (C.K.); (G.K.); (E.P.); (A.K.)
- Correspondence: (H.S.); (K.G.); Tel.: +30-265-100-7769 (H.S.); +30-265-100-7716 (K.G.)
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Vardaki MZ, Kourkoumelis N. Tissue Phantoms for Biomedical Applications in Raman Spectroscopy: A Review. Biomed Eng Comput Biol 2020; 11:1179597220948100. [PMID: 32884391 PMCID: PMC7440735 DOI: 10.1177/1179597220948100] [Citation(s) in RCA: 19] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/10/2020] [Accepted: 07/16/2020] [Indexed: 12/26/2022] Open
Abstract
Raman spectroscopy is a group of analytical techniques, currently applied in several research fields, including clinical diagnostics. Tissue-mimicking optical phantoms have been established as an essential intermediate stage for medical applications with their employment from spectroscopic techniques to be constantly growing. This review outlines the types of tissue phantoms currently employed in different biomedical applications of Raman spectroscopy, focusing on their composition and optical properties. It is therefore an attempt to present an informed range of options for potential use to the researchers.
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Affiliation(s)
- Martha Z Vardaki
- Department of Medical Physics, School of Health Sciences, University of Ioannina, Ioannina, Greece
| | - Nikolaos Kourkoumelis
- Department of Medical Physics, School of Health Sciences, University of Ioannina, Ioannina, Greece
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