Nanoparticle surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy as a noninvasive, label-free tool to monitor hematological malignancy. Grieve S, Puvvada N, Phinyomark A, Russell K, Murugesan A, Zed E, Hassan A, Legare JF, Kienesberger PC, Pulinilkunnil T, Reiman T, Scheme E, Brunt KR. Nanomedicine (Lond).16(24):2175-2188. doi: 10.2217/nnm-2021-0076. PMID: 34547916

Aim: Monitoring minimal residual disease remains a challenge to the effective medical management of hematological malignancies; yet surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) has emerged as a potential clinical tool to do so. Materials & methods: We developed a cell-free, label-free SERS approach using gold nanoparticles (nanoSERS) to classify hematological malignancies referenced against two control cohorts: healthy and noncancer cardiovascular disease. A predictive model was built using machine-learning algorithms to incorporate disease burden scores for patients under standard treatment upon. Results: Linear- and quadratic-discriminant analysis distinguished three cohorts with 69.8 and 71.4% accuracies, respectively. A predictive nonserious model correlated (MSE = 1.6) with established clinical parameters. Conclusion: This study offers a proof-of-concept for the noninvasive monitoring of disease progression, highlighting the potential to incorporate nanoSERS into translational medicine. Read here