Determining the characteristics and localization of nanoparticles inside cells is crucial for nanomedicine design for cancer therapy. Hyperspectral imaging is a fast, straightforward, reliable, and accurate method to study the interactions of nanoparticles and intracellular components. With a hyperspectral image, we could collect spectral information consisting of thousands of pixels in a short time. Using hyperspectral images, in this work, we developed a label-free technique to detect nanoparticles in different regions of the cell. This technique is based on plasmonic shifts taking place during the interaction of nanoparticles with the surrounding medium. The unique optical properties of gold nanoparticles, localized surface plasmon resonance bands, are influenced by their microenvironment. The LSPR properties of nanoparticles, hence, could provide information on regions in which nanoparticles are distributed. To examine the potential of this technique for intracellular detection, we used three different types of gold nanoparticles: nanospheres, nanostars and Swarna Bhasma (SB), an Indian Ayurvedic/Sidha medicine, in A549 (human non-small cell lung cancer) and HepG2 (human hepatocellular carcinoma) cells. All three types of particles exhibited broader and longer bands once they were inside cells; however, their plasmonic shifts could change depending on the size and morphology of particles. This technique, along with dark-field images, revealed the uniform distribution of nanospheres in cells and could provide more accurate information on their intracellular microenvironment compared to the other particles. The region-dependent optical responses of nanoparticles in cells highlight the potential application of this technique for subcellular diagnosis when particles with proper size and morphology are chosen to reflect the microenvironment effects properly.

确定纳米颗粒在细胞内的特性和定位对于癌症治疗的纳米药物设计至关重要。高光谱成像是一种快速、直接、可靠且准确的方法来研究纳米粒子和细胞内成分的相互作用。通过高光谱图像，我们可以在短时间内收集由数千个像素组成的光谱信息。在这项工作中，我们使用高光谱图像开发了一种无标记技术来检测细胞不同区域的纳米颗粒。该技术基于纳米粒子与周围介质相互作用期间发生的等离子体位移。金纳米颗粒独特的光学特性，即局域表面等离子体共振带，受到其微环境的影响。因此，纳米颗粒的局域表面等离子体共振特性可以提供有关纳米颗粒分布区域的信息。为了检验这种技术在细胞内检测方面的潜力，我们在 A549（人类非小细胞肺癌）和 HepG2 中使用了三种不同类型的金纳米颗粒：纳米球、纳米星和 Swarna Bhasma (SB)（一种印度阿育吠陀/Sidha 药物） （人肝细胞癌）细胞。所有这三种类型的粒子一旦进入细胞内部，就会表现出更宽、更长的谱带。然而，它们的等离子体位移可能会根据颗粒的大小和形态而变化。该技术与暗场图像一起揭示了纳米球在细胞中的均匀分布，并且与其他颗粒相比，可以提供有关其细胞内微环境的更准确的信息。 当选择具有适当尺寸和形态的颗粒来正确反映微环境影响时，细胞中纳米颗粒的区域依赖性光学响应凸显了该技术在亚细胞诊断中的潜在应用。