TY - JOUR A1 - Hornemann, A. A1 - Drescher, Daniela A1 - Flemig, Sabine A1 - Kneipp, Janina T1 - Intracellular SERS hybrid probes using BSA-reporter conjugates N2 - Surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) hybrid probes are characterized by the typical spectrum of a reporter molecule. In addition, they deliver information from their biological environment. Here, we report SERS hybrid probes generated by conjugating different reporter molecules to bovine serum albumin (BSA) and using gold nanoparticles as plasmonic core. Advantages of the BSA-conjugate hybrid nanoprobes over other SERS nanoprobes are a high biocompatibility, stabilization of the gold nanoparticles in the biological environment, stable reporter signals, and easy preparation. The coupling efficiencies of the BSA–reporter conjugates were determined by MALDI-TOF-MS. The conjugates' characteristic SERS spectra differ from the spectra of unbound reporter molecules. This is a consequence of the covalent coupling, which leads to altered SERS enhancement and changes in the chemical structures of the reporter and of BSA. The application of the BSA–reporter conjugate hybrid probes in 3T3 cells, including duplex imaging, is demonstrated. Hierarchical cluster analysis and principal components analysis were applied for multivariate imaging using the SERS signatures of the incorporated SERS hybrid nanoprobes along with the spectral information from biomolecules in endosomal structures of cells. The results suggest more successful applications of the SERS hybrid probes in cellular imaging and other unordered high-density bioanalytical sensing. KW - Bovine serum albumin KW - Nanosensor KW - SERS multiplexing KW - 3T3 cells KW - Gold nanoparticles KW - Hybrid nanoprobe KW - Rinderserumalbumin KW - Albumin KW - SERS KW - Konjugate KW - Conjugates KW - Cell KW - Zelle PY - 2013 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1007/s00216-013-7054-3 SN - 1618-2642 SN - 1618-2650 VL - 405 IS - 19 SP - 6209 EP - 6222 PB - Springer CY - Berlin AN - OPUS4-29819 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER -