Surface-Enhanced Raman Spectroscopy for Viral Detection

Surface-Enhanced Raman Spectroscopy (SERS) exploits the amplification of inelastic light scattering by molecules adsorbed on or near nanostructured metal surfaces, enabling the detection of viral particles and related biomarkers at extremely low concentrations. By coupling plasmonic nanostructures—typically gold or silver nanostructures—with target-specific recognition elements, SERS provides a spectral “fingerprint” of viral components such as nucleic acids, membrane proteins or metabolic by-products. Recent advances have focused on engineering reproducible substrates with high hotspot density, integrating microfluidic sample handling and applying multivariate data analysis or machine learning to discriminate viral signals from complex biological backgrounds. These developments have paved the way for rapid, label-free assays and point-of-care platforms for the early diagnosis and monitoring of emerging and re-emerging viral threats, with global implications for outbreak control and public health surveillance.

Research from Nature Portfolio

Recent studies have demonstrated the feasibility of non-invasive saliva-based SERS assays for SARS-CoV-2 detection, exploiting biochemical alterations in the salivary metabolome and immunoglobulin levels. A Raman fingerprint of infected versus uninfected subjects revealed distinct spectral features attributable to viral and host response markers. By coupling these spectral signatures with a deep-learning classification model, researchers achieved over 95 % accuracy, precision, sensitivity and specificity at the signal level, and patient-level diagnostic performance approaching 90 %. This work highlights the potential of SERS-based saliva screening as a rapid, minimally invasive diagnostic tool in large-scale epidemiological studies.

Surface-Enhanced Raman Spectroscopy for Viral Detection publication trend

The graph below shows the total number of articles in surface-enhanced raman spectroscopy for viral detection across all publications each year (not limited to Nature Index journals).

Technical terms

Surface-Enhanced Raman Spectroscopy (SERS): An analytical technique that enhances Raman scattering signals of molecules adsorbed on nanostructured metal surfaces by several orders of magnitude.

Plasmonic nanostructures: Metal nanoparticles or patterned surfaces that support localized surface plasmon resonances to amplify electromagnetic fields at specific wavelengths.

Hotspots: Regions of highly enhanced electromagnetic field intensity near sharp nanostructure features or junctions, critical for single-molecule sensitivity.

Biofunctionalisation: The modification of nanostructure surfaces with biological recognition elements (e.g. antibodies or aptamers) to confer target specificity.

Raman fingerprint: The characteristic pattern of vibrational peaks in a Raman spectrum that enables molecular identification.

References

1. Recent development of surface-enhanced Raman scattering for biosensing. Journal of Nanobiotechnology (2023).
2. COVID-19 salivary Raman fingerprint: innovative approach for the detection of current and past SARS-CoV-2 infections. Scientific Reports (2021).
3. A Review on SERS-Based Detection of Human Virus Infections: Influenza and Coronavirus. Biosensors (2021).
4. A review of metal nanoparticle‐based surface‐enhanced Raman scattering substrates for severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS‐CoV‐2) detection. Aggregate (2023).
5. A multiscale 3D hotspot-rich nanostructured substrate for biomolecular detection of SARS-CoV-2. Applied Physics Reviews (2023).