Fluorescent detection of protein kinase based on zirconium ions-immobilized magnetic nanoparticles

We report here an affinity separation-based fluorometric method for monitoring the activity and inhibition of protein kinase. In this assay, when the fluorescein isothiocyanate (FITC) labeled substrate peptides (S-peptide) are phosphorylated by kinase, the product peptides (P-peptide) will be adsorbed and concentrated onto the surface of Zr(4+)-immobilized nitrilotriacetic acid-coated magnetic nanoparticles (Zr-NTA MNPs) through the chelation of Zr(4+) and phosphate groups. After magnetic separation, the fluorescence intensity of the homogeneous solution changes dramatically. Hence the fluorescence response allows this MNPs-based method to easily probe kinase activity by a spectrometer. The feasibility of the method has been demonstrated by sensitive measurement of the activity of cAMP-dependent protein kinase (PKA) with a low detection limit (0.5 mU μL(-1)). Moreover, the system is successfully applied to estimate the IC50 value of PKA inhibitor H-89 and detect the Forskolin/3-isobutyl-1-methylxanthine (IBMX) stimulated activation of PKA in cell lysate. Additionally, Zr-NTA MNPs are reusable by stripping Zr(4+) ions from NTA-coated MNPs and rechelating again. This method, which relies on the surface-functionalized MNPs, presents a promising candidate for simple and cost-effective assay of kinase activity and inhibitor screening.