Department of Physics, University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, AR 72701, USA.
Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, AR 72701, USA.
Sensors (Basel). 2020 May 31;20(11):3112. doi: 10.3390/s20113112.
Due to the central role of DNA, its interactions with inorganic salts and small organic molecules are important. For example, such interactions play important roles in various fundamental cellular processes in living systems and are involved in many DNA-damage related diseases. Strategies to improve the sensitivity of existing techniques for studying DNA interactions with other molecules would be appreciated in situations where the interactions are too weak. Here we report our development and demonstration of bent DNA bows for amplifying, sensing, and detecting the interactions of 14 inorganic salts and small organic molecules with DNA. With the bent DNA bows, these interactions were easily visualized and quantified in gel electrophoresis, which were difficult to measure without bending. In addition, the strength of the interactions of DNA with the various salts/molecules were quantified using the modified Hill equation. This work highlights the amplification effects of the bending elastic energy stored in the DNA bows and the potential use of the DNA bows for quantitatively measuring DNA interactions with small molecules as simple economic methods; it may also pave the way for exploiting the bent DNA bows for other applications such as screening DNA-interacting molecules and drugs.
由于 DNA 起着核心作用，其与无机盐和小分子的相互作用非常重要。例如，这种相互作用在生命系统的各种基本细胞过程中起着重要作用，并且与许多与 DNA 损伤相关的疾病有关。在相互作用太弱的情况下，人们希望改进现有研究 DNA 与其他分子相互作用的技术的灵敏度的策略。在这里，我们报告了用于放大、感测和检测 14 种无机盐和小分子与 DNA 相互作用的弯曲 DNA 弓的开发和演示。通过弯曲 DNA 弓，在凝胶电泳中很容易观察和量化这些相互作用，如果没有弯曲，这些相互作用很难测量。此外，使用改进的 Hill 方程定量测量了 DNA 与各种盐/分子的相互作用强度。这项工作突出了弯曲 DNA 弓中存储的弯曲弹性能量的放大效应，以及 DNA 弓作为简单经济方法定量测量 DNA 与小分子相互作用的潜力；它也可能为利用弯曲 DNA 弓用于筛选 DNA 相互作用分子和药物等其他应用铺平道路。
