Gold-nanofève surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy visualizes hypotaurine as a robust anti-oxidant consumed in cancer survival

  • Megumi Shiota
  • , Masayuki Naya
  • , Takehiro Yamamoto
  • , Takako Hishiki
  • , Takeharu Tani
  • , Hiroyuki Takahashi
  • , Akiko Kubo
  • , Daisuke Koike
  • , Mai Itoh
  • , Mitsuyo Ohmura
  • , Yasuaki Kabe
  • , Yuki Sugiura
  • , Nobuyoshi Hiraoka
  • , Takayuki Morikawa
  • , Keiyo Takubo
  • , Kentaro Suina
  • , Hideaki Nagashima
  • , Oltea Sampetrean
  • , Osamu Nagano
  • , Hideyuki Saya
  • Shogo Yamazoe, Hiroyuki Watanabe, Makoto Suematsu

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

95 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Gold deposition with diagonal angle towards boehmite-based nanostructure creates random arrays of horse-bean-shaped nanostructures named gold-nanofève (GNF). GNF generates many electromagnetic hotspots as surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) excitation sources, and enables large-area visualization of molecular vibration fingerprints of metabolites in human cancer xenografts in livers of immunodeficient mice with sufficient sensitivity and uniformity. Differential screening of GNF-SERS signals in tumours and those in parenchyma demarcated tumour boundaries in liver tissues. Furthermore, GNF-SERS combined with quantum chemical calculation identified cysteine-derived glutathione and hypotaurine (HT) as tumour-dominant and parenchyma-dominant metabolites, respectively. CD44 knockdown in cancer diminished glutathione, but not HT in tumours. Mechanisms whereby tumours sustained HT under CD44-knockdown conditions include upregulation of PHGDH, PSAT1 and PSPH that drove glycolysis-dependent activation of serine/glycine-cleavage systems to provide one-methyl group for HT synthesis. HT was rapidly converted into taurine in cancer cells, suggesting that HT is a robust anti-oxidant for their survival under glutathione-suppressed conditions.

Original languageEnglish
Article number1561
JournalNature communications
Volume9
Issue number1
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 01-12-2018
Externally publishedYes

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

  • General Chemistry
  • General Biochemistry,Genetics and Molecular Biology
  • General Physics and Astronomy

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