Engineered transferring receptor

Lee, J.H., Baker, T.J., Mahal, L.K., Zabner, J., Bertozzi, C.R., Wiemer, D.F., and Welsh, M.J. (1999) Engineering novel cell surface receptors for virus-mediated gene transfer./. Biol. Chem. 274, 21878. 

Protons are relatively simple targets for sensor molecules and do not require engineered receptors, however, achievement of selective interactions with other chemical species requires much more elaborate receptors. In the most cases cations are bound via electrostatic or coordinative interactions within the receptors alkali metal cations, which are rather poor central ions and form only very weak coordination bonds, are usually bound within crown ethers, azacrown macrocycles, cryptands, podands, and related types of receptor moieties with oxygen and nitrogen donor atoms [8], Most of the common cation sensors are based on the photoinduced electron transfer (PET) mechanism, so the receptor moiety must have its redox potential (HOMO energy) adjusted to quench luminescence of the fluorophore (Figure 16.3). 

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