Surface Enhanced Raman Spectral Monitoring of 50 KDa Filtrate Portions of Blood Serum Samples of Patients with Iron Deficiency Anemia

Abstract

Surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) is considered powerful analytical technique that significantly enhances the Raman scattering which enables the detection of low concentration of biomolecular analytes of blood serum, which can lead to early diagnosis of diseases. The aim of this study is Surface enhanced Raman spectral monitoring of 50 KDa filtrate portions of blood serum samples of patients with iron deficiency anemia. The blood serum components include higher molecular weight fractions (HMWF) and lower molecular weight fractions (LMWF) of biomolecules. The biomarkers of iron deficiency anemia, which are low molecular weight fractions are suppressed by high molecular weight fraction hence hindering them from contributing in the diagnosis of the disease. The ultra-filtration of the blood serum samples is performed using filtration devices of 50 KDa. The specific SERS spectral features related to biochemical markers of iron deficiency anemic subgroups (with different values of hemoglobin) from different blood serum samples are identified including 479, 535, 888, and 1300 cm⁻¹. These SERS features can be associated with different biomarkers of iron deficiency anemia consisting of ferritin, hepcidin, iron bound transferrin, and erythropoietin. Moreover, chemometric statistical techniques including principal component analysis (PCA) and partial least square regression (PLSR) are used for qualitative analysis of variations between spectral data and quantitative prediction of hemoglobin concentration of iron deficiency anemia samples, respectively.