Raman Spectrocopy and surface plasmon resonance as photonic tools for biopharmaceutical applications

Biophotonics is an emerging area of scientific research that uses light of photons to probe biological specimens, such as tissues, cells and molecules. The field of biophotonics is broad and considerably multidisciplinary. Therefore the prerequisite for understanding biophotonics is the capability to integrate the fundamental knowledge of the physics of light with perspectives of engineering of devices and instruments used to generate, modify, and manipulate light. Also, the fundamentals of biology and medicine are essential particularly comprehension of the biochemical and cellular phenomena that occur in living systems, and how such phenomena can be scaled up to concern the physiology of organisms, for example humans. Biological pathways and processes differ in the healthy and diseased state, and that is why it is essential to develop understanding of pathophysiology and various states of disease such as cancer, neurodegenerative disease or infectious states. Consequently, solid insights into the functions of medical treatments, including biopharmaceutics, are needed. Raman and surface plasmon resonance (SPR) are both light-based technologies enabling label-free measurements with high sensitivity. The primary aim of this Thesis was to tackle the emerging hardships encountered in the fundamental biopharmaceutical research, clinical settings, or in the pharmaceutical industry by introducing applications and data analysis methods based on the cutting edge Raman and SPR technologies. These techniques represent the biophotonic cornerstones as tools for biopharmaceutical applications throughout this Thesis. The scope of this Thesis was essentially broad. First, small drug molecules were investigated with state-of-the-art time-gated Raman technology, showing that the interfering photoluminescent backgrounds can be effectively suppressed thus improving the acquired Raman data significantly. Additionally, EVs were studied with laser tweezers Raman spectroscopy (LTRS) as larger scale analytes and representatives of a highly interesting topic in the current nanomedical field. When Raman data from several different types of single EVs was examined using sophisticated data analysis, distinct subpopulations were observed, and the differences could be related to the biochemical compositions of the vesicle membranes. For the first time, the study showed the importance of measuring single EVs instead of a pool of vesicles. Multi-parametric SPR (MP-SPR) technology was harnessed to develop applications and data analysis methods for small and larger scale analytes. Hence, a new small drug molecule, spin-labeled fluorene (SLF), was investigated in the context of Alzheimer s disease (AD) particularly its potential to interfere with the detrimental amyloid peptide aggregation processes. The developed bio-functional in vitro platform in combination with rigorous data analysis and computational simulations demonstrated the capabilities of SLF when it was employed in various biomimetic aggregation schemes. Moreover, liposomes were examined with the MP-SPR as larger scale nanomedical particles for the purposes of safe and effective nanocarrier development. The administration of a liposomal nanocarrier into the blood circulation was mimicked in the designed bionanophotonic in vitro schemes. Undiluted serum was made to interact with immobilized model liposomes in dynamic flow conditions. The findings revealed that the variation in surface chemistries of the liposomes plays a role when serum essentially immune system components are interacting with the liposomes. In particular, distinct soft and hard protein coronas were observed and characterized during the interactions. Collectively, the results and findings in this Thesis underline the broad potential of biophotonics for biopharmaceutical applications. The technical improvements in instrumentation, and creativity in the application and data analysis development make the future of biophotonics bright.