Not when inside another string. Backticks (and/or square brackets) are quotes for SQL barewords:
"SELECT COL1,COL2 FROM TABLE"
and
"SELECT `COL1`,`COL2` FROM `TABLE`"
are equivalent. It allows you to have columns with whitepace in the name:
"SELECT `COL1 NAME`,`COL2 NAME` FROM TABLE"

"SELECT 'COL1 NAME','COL2 NAME' FROM TABLE"
would return something entirely different.