Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry and Biodesign Institute, Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona 85287, USA.
J Am Chem Soc. 2011 Mar 30;133(12):4490-7. doi: 10.1021/ja1103298. Epub 2011 Mar 7.
DNA nanotechnology allows the design and construction of nanoscale objects that have finely tuned dimensions, orientation, and structure with remarkable ease and convenience. Synthetic DNA nanostructures can be precisely engineered to model a variety of molecules and systems, providing the opportunity to probe very subtle biophysical phenomena. In this study, several such synthetic DNA nanostructures were designed to serve as models to study the binding behavior of polyvalent molecules and gain insight into how small changes to the ligand/receptor scaffolds, intended to vary their conformational flexibility, will affect their association equilibrium. This approach has yielded a quantitative identification of the roles of enthalpy and entropy in the affinity of polyvalent DNA nanostructure interactions, which exhibit an intriguing compensating effect.
DNA 纳米技术允许设计和构建具有精细调节的尺寸、取向和结构的纳米级物体，具有显著的简便性和便利性。合成 DNA 纳米结构可以精确地设计来模拟各种分子和系统，为探测非常微妙的生物物理现象提供了机会。在这项研究中，设计了几种这样的合成 DNA 纳米结构作为模型来研究多价分子的结合行为，并深入了解对配体/受体支架进行微小改变（旨在改变它们的构象灵活性）如何影响它们的缔合平衡。这种方法定量确定了焓和熵在多价 DNA 纳米结构相互作用亲和力中的作用，这些相互作用表现出一种有趣的补偿效应。
