Surface-Enhanced Raman Spectroscopy-Based Detection of EMT-Related Targets in Endometrial Cancer: Potential for Diagnosis and Prognostic Prediction

Epithelial-mesenchymal transformation (EMT) is one of the important mechanisms of malignancy in endometrial cancer, and detection of EMT targets is a key challenge to explore the mechanism of endometrial carcinoma (EC) malignancy and discover novel therapeutic targets. This study attempts to use surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS), a highly sensitive, ultrafast, and highly specific analytical technology, to rapidly detect microRNA-200a-3p and ZEB1 in endometrial cancer cell lines. The silver nanoparticles were decorated with iodine and calcium ions, can capture the SERS fingerprints of microRNA-200a-3p and ZEB1 protein, and effectively avoid the interference of impurity signals. At the same time, the method has high sensitivity for the detection of the above EMT targets, and the lowest detection limits for microRNA-200a-3p and ZEB1 are 4.5 pmol/mL and 10 ng/mL, respectively. At the lowest detection concentration, the method still has high stability. In addition, principal component analysis can not only identify microRNA-200a-3p and ZEB1 protein from a variety of EMT-associated microRNA and proteins but also identify them in the total RNA and total protein of endometrial cancer cell lines and normal endometrial epithelial cell lines. This study modified silver nanoparticles with iodine and calcium ions and for the first time captured the fingerprints of EMT-related targets microRNA-200a-3p and ZEB1 at the same time without label, and the method has high sensitivity and stability. This SERS-based method has immense potential for elucidating the molecular mechanisms of EMT-related EC, as well as identifying biomarkers for malignant degree and prognosis prediction.