Method for assessing a state of a living cell

1. A method for assessing a health condition of a living cell using surface enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS), the method comprising

a) incubating one or more living cells with an alkyne-containing compound to form one or more modified living cells,

b) mixing the one or more modified living cells with a SERS-active material to form a mixture,

c) injecting the mixture into a conduit defined by an inner wall of a hollow core photonic crystal fiber, and

d) detecting a surface enhanced Raman signal from the mixture in the conduit, which comprises detecting changes in pattern and/or intensity of the surface enhanced Raman signal in a region of 1800 cm −1 to 2200 cm −1 ,

wherein the conduit is dimensioned (i) to accommodate one modified living cell at each location along its length spaced apart from another modified living cell and (ii) for each modified living cell to be surrounded volumetrically with the SERS-active material.

2. The method according to claim 1 , wherein incubating the one or more living cells with the alkyne-containing compound comprises incubating the one or more living cells with the alkyne-containing compound for a time period in a range of about 1 hour to about 5 hours.

3. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the alkyne-containing compound is selected from the group consisting of an alkyne-modified unsaturated fatty acid, an alkyne-functionalized boronic acid, and combinations thereof.

4. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the alkyne-containing compound is selected from the group consisting of linoleamide alkyne, 4-(dihydroxyborophenyl) acetylene, and combinations thereof.

5. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the SERS-active material comprises nanoparticles of the SERS-active material.

6. The method according to claim 5 , wherein each nanoparticle of the SERS-active material has a diameter in a range from about 5 nm to about 250 nm.

7. The method according to claim 5 , wherein each nanoparticle of the SERS-active material has a diameter in a range from about 60 nm to about 100 nm.

8. The method according to claim 5 , wherein concentration of the nanoparticles of the SERS-active material in the mixture is in a range of about 1×10 10 particles/mL to about 1×10 12 particles/mL.

9. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the SERS-active material comprises gold nanoparticles.

10. The method according to claim 1 , wherein concentration of the one or more modified living cells in the mixture is in a range of about 20,000 cells/mL to about 30,000 cells/mL.

11. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the conduit is dimensioned to accommodate one modified living cell.

12. The method according to claim 1 , wherein detecting a surface enhanced Raman signal from the mixture in the conduit comprises directing a radiation into the conduit for a time period in a range of about 8 seconds to about 12 seconds.

13. The method according to claim 1 , wherein detecting a surface enhanced Raman signal from the mixture in the conduit comprises collecting the surface enhanced Raman signal in a backscattering geometry.

14. The method according to claim 1 , wherein assessing the health condition of the living cell comprises determining presence and/or extent of lipid peroxidation of the living cell.

15. The method according to claim 1 , wherein assessing the health condition of the living cell comprises determining presence and/or amount of salic acid on the living cell.

16. The method according to claim 15 , wherein amount of the salic acid on the living cell is correlated with surface enhanced Raman signal from the mixture in the conduit.

17. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the one or more living cells is contained in a sample and the detection is in vitro.