Identification of Molecular Biomarkers of Diffuse Large B-Cell Lymphoma Through Gold Nanoparticle-Based Surface-Enhanced Raman Spectroscopy (SERS) Coupled with Multivariate Analysis

Diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) represents the common subtype of non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL) with approximately 150,000 new cases every year. The incidence of DLBCL is increasing in adults, and many people relapse or die after getting treatment. The early diagnosis of DLBCL can overcome the mortality rate across the world. Surface-enhanced Raman Spectroscopy can be effectively utilized to characterize biomolecular changes in DLBCL serum samples at the early stage. In the present study, blood serum samples collected from healthy and DLBCL patients were incubated with gold nanoparticles (Au-NPs) to enhance their Raman signals and identify disease-related biochemical changes. Principal component analysis (PCA) and partial least squares-discriminant analysis (PLS-DA) were used to analyze SERS spectral data of these samples. PCA converted the correlated data into uncorrelated data and visualized them as clusters. PLS-DA was used to differentiate and discriminate SERS spectral data sets. The results highlight spectral features related to DNA/RNA, carbohydrates, proteins, and lipids that differentiate healthy and disease samples. The performance of PLS-DA was illustrated by an area under the curve (AUC) of 0.98, 100% sensitivity, 95% specificity, and 99% accuracy. It has been noted that SERS, combined with different chemometric techniques, yields valid results for the noninvasive and rapid detection of DLBCL.