Development of a quantitative fluorescence-based ligand-binding assay

A major goal of biology is to develop a quantitative ligand-binding assay that does not involve the use of radioactivity. Existing fluorescence-based assays have a serious drawback due to fluorescence quenching that accompanies the binding of fluorescently-labeled ligands to their receptors. This li...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Scientific reports 2016-05, Vol.6 (1), p.25769-25769, Article 25769
Main Authors: Breen, Conor J, Raverdeau, Mathilde, Voorheis, H Paul
Format: Article
Language:eng
Subjects:
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:A major goal of biology is to develop a quantitative ligand-binding assay that does not involve the use of radioactivity. Existing fluorescence-based assays have a serious drawback due to fluorescence quenching that accompanies the binding of fluorescently-labeled ligands to their receptors. This limitation of existing fluorescence-based assays prevents the number of cellular receptors under investigation from being accurately measured. We have developed a method where FITC-labeled proteins bound to a cell surface are proteolyzed extensively to eliminate fluorescence quenching and then the fluorescence of the resulting sample is compared to that of a known concentration of the proteolyzed FITC-protein employed. This step enables the number of cellular receptors to be measured quantitatively. We expect that this method will provide researchers with a viable alternative to the use of radioactivity in ligand binding assays.
ISSN:2045-2322
2045-2322