The pathogenesis underlining many neurodegenerative diseases remains incompletely understood. The lack of effective biomarkers and disease preventative medicine demands the development of new techniques to efficiently probe the mechanisms of disease and to detect early biomarkers predictive of disease onset. Raman spectroscopy is an established technique that allows the label-free fingerprinting and imaging of molecules based on their chemical constitution and structure. While analysis of isolated biological molecules has been widespread in the chemical community, applications of Raman spectroscopy to study clinically relevant biological species, disease pathogenesis, and diagnosis have been rapidly increasing since the past decade. The growing number of biomedical applications has shown the potential of Raman spectroscopy for detection of novel biomarkers that could enable the rapid and accurate screening of disease susceptibility and onset. Here we provide an overview of Raman spectroscopy and related techniques and their application to neurodegenerative diseases. We further discuss their potential utility in research, biomarker detection, and diagnosis. Challenges to routine use of Raman spectroscopy in the context of neuroscience research are also presented.

中文翻译：

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拉曼光谱：神经退行性疾病研究和诊断的新兴工具

强调许多神经退行性疾病的发病机制仍不完全清楚。缺乏有效的生物标志物和疾病预防医学需要开发新技术，以有效地探测疾病的机制并检测出可预测疾病发作的早期生物标志物。拉曼光谱法是一项成熟的技术，可根据分子的化学组成和结构对分子进行无标记指纹识别和成像。尽管分离的生物分子的分析已在化学界广泛应用，但自过去十年以来，拉曼光谱法在研究临床上相关的生物物种，疾病发病机理和诊断方面的应用已迅速增加。越来越多的生物医学应用显示出拉曼光谱技术在检测新型生物标志物方面的潜力，这些新型生物标志物可以快速，准确地筛查疾病易感性和发作。在这里，我们提供了拉曼光谱和相关技术及其在神经退行性疾病中的应用的概述。我们进一步讨论了它们在研究，生物标志物检测和诊断中的潜在效用。还提出了在神经科学研究领域对拉曼光谱常规使用的挑战。