Label-Free Detection of Protein Secondary Structure Content in Biological Specimen by Fourier-Transform Infrared Spectroscopy

Fourier-transform infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy, a non-destructive, label-free, and high sensitive and specific analytical method is a vibrational technique that gives information on the chemical composition of a sample of biological specimens. It is also a powerful approach to detect changes in the protein composition and structure of intact living cells. To determine a cellular function or change of biological materials (cells, tissues, microorganisms, etc.), we have studied the amide I band of protein by using both FT-IR spectra based on attenuated total reflection (ATR) and their second derivative spectra. we have performed the breast cancer cells and the pathogenic microorganisms exposed to anticancer and antibiotic drugs, respectively. Based on these studies, we found that the potential to use this technique for the detection and quantification of the protein secondary structure components of biological specimens under drug application