Can Chiroptical Spectroscopy be Used for the Analysis of Blood Plasma?

Abstract

As an improvement on currently used methods of molecular spectroscopy, we used chiroptical techniques (electronic circular dichroism, fluorescence detected circular dichroism, and Raman optical activity [ROA]) to investigate the human blood plasma. To avoid the degradation of plasma samples, we measured them directly without any further preparation. We also tested cutoff weight filters (Amicon Ultra 100, 30, 10, and 3 kDa by Merck Millipore) to reduce undesirable fluorescence in the ROA and Raman spectra and also to remove the most abundant protein in the plasma-human serum albumin. The obtained spectra show that the ultrafiltration has a positive effect on undesirable fluorescence in ROA and Raman and also could reduce the amount of albumin in the plasma. Our results suggest that blood plasma can be successfully measured by the aforementioned methods. Therefore, these methods can potentially be useful for following research in the development of new, noninvasive, and reliable screening methods of clinical diagnostics.

Recent Trends in Chiroptical Spectroscopy: Theory and Applications of Vibrational Circular Dichroism and Raman Optical Activity

“…[202] The spectroscopy was employed to study protein folding, [203] dependence of the secondary structure on peptide chain length, [204] or the effect of protonation. [205] Blood plasma [206][207][208] and protein fibrils [209][210][211] were studied by ROA as well.…”

Chiroptical spectroscopy and metabolomics for blood‐based sensing of pancreatic cancer

“…Recently, attention has been focused on PC at the genetic level, with the inspection of micro‐RNAs showing a promising diagnostic potential, as well as suggesting that a reliable biomarker panel might emerge from biofluids if innovative approaches are applied . Because biomolecules in human biofluids are already routinely used to determine the biomarkers of several diseases, blood plasma seems to be a useful probe also for the screening of PC.…”

“…Thus, their structure and behavior is suited to being monitored by chiroptical spectroscopy, which is inherently sensitive to the 3D arrangement of chiral molecules and, thus, better able to identify any subtle conformational changes . In our previous studies, we developed a methodology for the smooth spectroscopic analysis of human blood plasma that combines both conventional and chiroptical forms of spectroscopy . We have also successfully applied our methodology to the identification of differences between the blood plasma of healthy subjects and that of patients suffering from type 1 diabetes and colon cancer …”

Electronic circular dichroism for the detection of microalbuminuria

“…[1][2][3][4][5] It has also been used to resolve the structure of several vital biomolecules. [9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17] A number of them have successfully used chiroptical spectroscopy of blood plasma, serum, or urine for [This article is part of the Special Issue: Proceedings 16th International Conference on Chiroptical Spectroscopy, Rennes France 2017. However, the vast majority of chiroptical studies have been devoted to single molecules or simple systems, which are not burdened by the complexity of real biofluids.…”

“…Some researchers, however, have attempted to overcome issues such as low concentrations of clinically significant molecules, high level of fluorescence, and undesirable interferences disturbing the signals of interest by using chiroptical spectroscopy in biofluid analysis. [9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17] A number of them have successfully used chiroptical spectroscopy of blood plasma, serum, or urine for [This article is part of the Special Issue: Proceedings 16th International Conference on Chiroptical Spectroscopy, Rennes France 2017. See the first articles for this special issue previously published in Volume 30:4.…”