A SERS and fluorescence dual mode cancer cell targeting probe based on silica coated Au@Ag core–shell nanorods

We report a dual mode cancer cell targeting probe based on CdTe quantum dots (QDs) conjugated, silica coated Au@Ag core–shell nanorods (Au@Ag NRs), which can generate both surface enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) and fluorescence signals. In such a probe, folic acid (FA) is used as a targeting ligand for folate receptors (FRs) overexpressed cancer cells. To synthesize the probe, Au@Ag NRs were first prepared to serve as the SERS substrates by coating an Ag shell on the gold nanorods. Then the Au@Ag NRs were labeled with 4-mercaptobenzoic acid (4MBA) to generate SERS signals, followed by being coated with a silica shell through a modified Stöber method. Finally, CdTe QDs and FA were conjugated to the silica coated Au@Ag NRs by the carbodiimide chemistry to yield fluorescence and the targeting ability, respectively. To validate the targeting capability of the probe, in vitro experiments were conducted, using HeLa cells with overexpressed FRs as the model target cells and MRC-5 cells with a low folate receptor expression level as the negative control. Both the fluorescence imaging and the SERS mapping results confirmed that the proposed probe can be used as an efficient cancer cell targeting agent. This kind of multifunctional probe has great potential in the diagnosis and therapeutics of cancerous diseases due to its specific targeting and multiplex imaging abilities, especially in the simultaneous tracking of multiple components in a hybrid bio-system.