This work explores the potential of Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopic imaging at the single-cell level combined with partial least squares (PLS) regression to investigate the cell’s response to drug/gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) conjugates. In a broader context, this study provides not only the effective differentiation between non-tumorigenic, mildly malignant and malignant cells, but above all proposes a novel approach to define the sensitivity of cancer cells to drugs. AuNPs can be widely and effectively used in biosensing and bioimaging applications. Three human breast cell lines, i.e. MCF10A (non-tumorigenic), MCF7 (metastatic, pleural effusion, mildly malignant) and MDA-MB-231 (metastatic, pleural effusion, malignant) have been exposed to different concentration of AuNPs (15 mg/L and 10 mg/L) and AuNPs/α-methyl-DL-tryptophan conjugates (10 mg/L NPs·3,75 × 10^-6 M and 10 mg/L NPs·3,75 × 10^-5 M). It is implied that the class values predicted by the PLS regression model indicate a very good separation between non-tumorigenic, mildly malignant and malignant cells. Furthermore, the FTIR-PLS approach shows that bands responsible for the segregation between the control cells and the cells treated with drug/AuNPs conjugate result from the changes in RNA/DNA, lipids and amide I and II vibrations. Drug/AuNPs conjugate affects the nucleic acids in all of the studied cell types. The performed analysis suggests that MCF-7 cell line is particularly sensitive to the drug treatment, which result in the drug interacting with nucleic acids and DNA conformational changes.

这项工作探索了单细胞水平傅立叶变换红外（FTIR）光谱成像与偏最小二乘（PLS）回归相结合的潜力，以研究细胞对药物/金纳米颗粒（AuNPs）共轭物的反应。在更广泛的背景下，这项研究不仅提供了非致瘤性，轻度恶性和恶性细胞之间的有效区分，而且最重要的是提出了一种定义癌细胞对药物敏感性的新方法。AuNP可广泛且有效地用于生物传感和生物成像应用。三种人类乳腺癌细胞系，即MCF10A（非致瘤性），MCF7（转移性，胸腔积液，轻度恶性）和MDA-MB-231（转移性，胸腔积液，恶性）已暴露于不同浓度的AuNPs（15 mg / L和10 mg / L）和AuNPs / α-甲基-DL-色氨酸缀合物（10 mg / L NPs·3.75×10 ^-6 M和10 mg / L NPs·3.75×10 ^-5 M）。暗示由PLS回归模型预测的分类值表明非致瘤性，轻度恶性和恶性细胞之间的很好的分离。此外，FTIR-PLS方法表明，负责控制细胞与用药物/ AuNPs偶联物处理的细胞之间分离的条带是由RNA / DNA，脂质以及酰胺I和II振动的变化引起的。药物/ AuNPs偶联物会影响所有研究细胞类型的核酸。进行的分析表明，MCF-7细胞系对药物治疗特别敏感，这导致药物与核酸相互作用和DNA构象变化。