General approach for monitoring peptide-protein interactions based on graphene-peptide complex

Peptide-protein interactions have critical roles in biology. Monitoring peptide-protein interactions plays an important role in investigating molecular recognition, screening drugs, and designing biosensors. In this paper, we develop a novel fluorescent approach to monitor peptide-protein interactions based on the assembly of pyrene-labeled peptide and graphene oxide (GO). The pyrene-labeled peptide is strongly adsorbed on the surface of GO via π-π interactions and hydrophobic interactions. As a result, the proximity of the GO to the pyrene moiety effectively quenches the fluorescence of pyrene. In the presence of target protein, the competitive binding of the target protein with GO for peptide results in the restoration of fluorescence signal. This signaling mechanism makes it possible to monitor the peptide-protein interactions in a homogeneous real-time format.