Atomic force microscopy based nanoassay: a new method to study alpha-Synuclein-dopamine bioaffinity interactions

作者：Corvaglia Stefania; Sanavio Barbara; Enriquez Rolando P Hong; Sorce Barbara; Bosco Alessandro; Scaini Denis; Sabella Stefania; Pompa Pier Paolo; Scoles Giacinto; Casalis Loredana^*

来源：Scientific Reports, 2014, 4(1): 5366.

DOI：10.1038/srep05366

Intrinsically Disordered Proteins (IDPs) are characterized by the lack of well-defined 3-D structure and show high conformational plasticity. For this reason, they are a strong challenge for the traditional characterization of structure, supramolecular assembly and biorecognition phenomena. We show here how the fine tuning of protein orientation on a surface turns useful in the reliable testing of biorecognition interactions of IDPs, in particular alpha-Synuclein. We exploited atomic force microscopy (AFM) for the selective, nanoscale confinement of alpha-Synuclein on gold to study the early stages of alpha-Synuclein aggregation and the effect of small molecules, like dopamine, on the aggregation process. Capitalizing on the high sensitivity of AFM topographic height measurements we determined, for the first time in the literature, the dissociation constant of dopamine-alpha-Synuclein adducts.

• 出版日期2014-6-20