Surface-enhanced Raman scattering on silvered porous alumina templates: role of multipolar surface plasmon resonant modes.

Nanostructured silver films with different thicknesses were prepared by vapor deposition onto the surface of the anodic aluminum oxide (AAO) template to be used as surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) active substrates. Both the peak position of the surface plasmon resonance (SPR) band and SERS enhancement of silvered AAO samples displayed non-monotonous dependence on Ag layer thickness. Using 441.6 nm excitation and a water-soluble cationic porphyrin, Cu(ii)-tetrakis(4-N-methylpyridyl) (CuTMPyP4), as a SERS-reporting analyte, two maxima of the SERS enhancement were obtained for Ag layers of 15 and 120 nm thickness. Thickness dependencies have been analyzed taking into account the type of SPR modes identified by means of quasicrystalline approximation (QCA) of statistical theory of multiple scattering of waves and multi-Lorentzian deconvolution. The analysis revealed that SERS enhancement is related to the absolute magnitude of the distance between excitation wavelength and spectral position of collective SPR mode. It was shown that matching of excitation wavelength and the most intensive SPR modes with non-radiative decay, generated mainly by coherent interaction of higher-order plasmon resonant modes (quadrupole and octupole), plays a dominate role in SERS performance. Besides, it has been observed that more intense SERS signal can be obtained when the analyte deposited on the Ag/AAO substrate was excited through the AAO template rather than from the silvered side. Our results demonstrate that appropriate excitation geometry and fine-tuning of the optical properties of the Ag/AAO substrate by adjusting the thickness of the Ag layer with respect to particular excitation wavelength can contribute to more effective SERS enhancement.

Cellular uptake of phosphorothioate oligonucleotide facilitated by cationic porphyrin: a microfluorescence study.

Cationic 5,10,15,20-tetrakis (1-methyl-4-pyridyl) porphyrin was tested as a delivery agent for oligonucleotides. By using fluorescence microimaging, it has been shown that complexation of the porphyrin to the phosphorothioate analog of dT(15) labeled by rhodamine enabled its nonendocytic penetration into the cell and regular distribution in the cytoplasm and preferentially into the nucleus. Time-resolved microfluorescence spectroscopy revealed that the oligonucleotide integrity was kept. A small fraction of the porphyrin molecules seems to undergo change of the binding mode after internalization, probably due to duplex formation between the oligonucleotide and its cellular target sequences, or due to dissociation of the porphyrin from the oligonucleotide and subsequent interactions in the cellular environment.

Surface-enhanced resonance Raman spectroscopy of porphyrin and metalloporphyrin species in systems with Ag nanoparticles and their assemblies.

The advantages of systems with Ag nanoparticles and their assemblies for surface-enhanced resonance Raman scattering (SERRS) spectral investigation, detection and determination of porphyrin species are demonstrated. SERRS spectral detection limits of the testing porphyrin species (including porphyrin aggregates) in these systems are shown to be, on average, 10(2)-10(3) lower than detection limits by resonance Raman scattering (RRS). Systems with Ag nanoparticles modified by anionic organosulfur spacers enable us to obtain SERRS spectra of unperturbed cationic porphyrin species. In the case of thiopheneacetate-modified Ag particles prepared by laser ablation, no negative effect of the spacer on the spectral detection limit of the porphyrin was observed. Systems with isolated Ag nanoparticles allow for obtaining SERRS spectra of porphyrin species upon excitation into the Soret electronic absorption band which leads to at least a 10-fold decrease in the detection limit.

Changes in Na+,K(+)-ATPase structure induced by cation binding. Approach by Raman spectroscopy.

Raman analysis of Na+,K(+)-ATPase structural changes induced by cation binding reveals a slight decrease ( < 10%) of the alpha-helical content upon E1-E2 transition. Pronounced conformational changes of the enzyme are unlikely as the character of the environment of tyrosine residues remains unaltered. However, local changes can take place as evidenced by changes in tryptophan vibration at about 880 cm-1.

Salt-induced conformational transition of poly(d2NH2A-dT) studied by ultraviolet resonance Raman spectroscopy.

The conformational changes of poly(d2NH2A-dT) in aqueous solution, induced by increasing the NaCl concentration from 0.1M to 4M, have been monitored by ultraviolet resonance Raman spectroscopy, in using the 222-, 257- and 281 nm excitation wavelengths. These changes have been interpreted in comparing the polymer spectra to those of the mononucleotide compounds on one hand, and to those of other alternating purine-pyrimidine polymers on the other hand, i.e. poly(dG-dC) and poly(dA-dT) which showed a B to Z transition in going from low- to high salt concentrations. The high salt poly(d2NH2A-dT) spectra do not show any Raman marker line of the Z conformation. The spectroscopic results indicate that most of the ribose puckering goes from C2'-endo/anti to C3'-endo/anti in increasing the salt concentration. In addition the base stacking interactions, to which the resonance Raman effect is very sensitive, are not drastically changed upon salt variations. Thus the high salt structure of poly(d2NH2A-dT) remains a right-handed helix, likely under a dominant A conformation.