Assays binding

The equilibrium dissociation constant, Ay, is a measure of binding affinity, defined as the free ligand concentration when 50% of the binding sites are occupied. It is equivalent to the ratio of the rate constants for dissociation and association, Ay = Arott/A on. Accordingly, the magnitude of Ay can be measured either at equilibrium, or as k0(flk0n. Several approaches have been used to measure these parameters in kinase drug discovery.34 Below, I outline some of the widely used methods. 

Binding assays usually offer a potentially important advantage over assays that require turnover of substrate—they can characterise the effects of test compounds against kinases in non-activated states, which frequently have low or undetectable levels of catalytic activity. However, binding alone may not 

Biosensor instruments such as Biacore (General Electric) exploit the sensitivity of a surface plasmon resonance response to the mass localised near the surface of a sensor chip. Various approaches can be used for kinases. Inhibition in solution assays involve immobilisation of a target definition compound (TDQ on the sensor surface.13,30 A buffer containing the kinase is flowed over the surface so that the protein is able to bind to the immobilised TDC, giving a signal. When test compounds are included in the buffer, they can compete for the TDC-kinase interaction, allowing estimation of Kd. 

Pyridinyl imidazoles have been used as fluorescent reporters of binding to p38a MAP kinase.12,13 To measure kon for test compounds, the kinase was 

The assay was utilized to measure zearlenone in food samples with a detection limit of 25 xM. 

MIP assays can also be utilized in synthetic organic applications. For example, MIP-based assays have been used to measure the chiral purity of samples in organic solvents. An L-phenylalanine anilide (l-PAA) imprinted polymer was utilized as a recognition element to measure the enantiomeric excess (ee) of PAA samples (Chen and Shimizu 2002). The MIP displays greater capacity for l-PAA versus d-PAA samples of similar concentration, and this difference was used to estimate enantiomeric excess. The enantiomeric excess of an unknown solution was determined by comparing the UV absorbance of the PAA remaining in solution after equilibration against a calibration curve. This MIP assay was demonstrated to be rapid and accurate with a standard error of +5% ee. 

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There should be specific, saturable binding to the receptor, accompanied by pharmacological characteristics appropriate to the functional effects, demonstrable using a radioactive, eg, tritium or iodine-125, ligand to label the receptor. Radioligand binding assays (1,6) have become a significant means by which to identify and characterize receptors and enzymes (see Immunoassays Radioactive tracers). Isolation of the receptor or expression of the receptor in another cell, eg, an oocyte can be used to confirm the existence of a discrete entity. 

Enzyme Immunosensors. Enzyme immunosensors are enzyme immunoassays coupled with electrochemical sensors. These sensors (qv) require multiple steps for analyte determination, and either sandwich assays or competitive binding assays maybe used. Both of these assays use antibodies for the analyte of interest attached to a membrane on the surface of an electrochemical sensor. In the sandwich assay type, the membrane-bound antibody binds the sample antigen, which in turn binds another antibody that is enzyme-labeled. This immunosensor is then placed in a solution containing the substrate for the labeling enzyme and the rate of product formation is measured electrochemically. The rate of the reaction is proportional to the amount of bound enzyme and thus to the amount of the analyte antigen. The sandwich assay can be used only with antigens capable of binding two different antibodies simultaneously (53). 

It was agreed at the workshop that endocrine disrupting activity could only be adequately defined in terms of effects in intact animals, be they juvenile or adult, or in the offspring of exposed parents. For many chemicals, evidence of endocrine disrupting activity has been obtained only by the use of in vitro models, such as hormone binding assays. It was accepted, therefore, that chemicals active in such models should be considered only as potential EDs and should be distinguished from those established as active in vivo. For such chemicals, an alternative definition was recommended ... 

CD, TEM and a thioflavin binding assay (binding to fibrils results in a characteristic fluorescence emission) were used to confirm the existence of mixed fibrils (width roughly 20 nm, lengths ranging from hundreds of nanometres to several micrometres) prepared from the two peptides (pi6 and B2x-pl6) and consisting of p-sheets. 

Ansell, RJ Mosbach, K, Magnetic Molecularly Imprinted Polymer Beads for Drug Radioligand Binding Assay, Analyst 123, 1611, 1998. 

This approach can be generalized to all possible types of experimental data that may be generated. All chemical structures available in public databases or internal to a company typically feature at least the in vitro binding assay data and additionally, the three-dimensional structure of the protein and/or bound ligand. A chemical compound C will therefore be ... 

Binding assays for the saxitoxins were conducted with homogenized rabbit brain and saxitoxin exchange-labelled with tritium at C-11 (92, 93). If the various saxitoxins were available with suitably intense radiolabels, then the equilibrium dissociation constant, K, could be measured directly for each. Since only saxitoxin is currently available with the necessary label, the binding experiments instead measure the ability of a compound to compete with radiolabelled saxitoxin for the binding site. The value obtained, Kj, corresponds to the uilibrium dissociation constant, K, that would be observed for the compound if it were measured directly. Affinity is defined for this assay as the reciprocal of Kj. The affinities of several of the saxitoxins (94) are summarized in Figure 11, expressed relative to saxitoxin and plotted on a logarithmic scale. 

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