Biosensor-surface plasmon resonance: A strategy to help establish a new generation RNA-specific small molecules

Area of Science:

• Biophysical Chemistry
• Molecular Biology
• Biosensor Technology

Background:

• Surface plasmon resonance (SPR) is a label-free, real-time detection technique widely used for biomolecular interaction studies.
• Previous SPR applications focused on protein-protein, protein-DNA, and small molecule-DNA interactions.
• Recent advances highlight the need to explore SPR for RNA interaction analysis due to new discoveries in RNA structure and function.

Purpose of the Study:

• To review and demonstrate the application of SPR for studying RNA interactions.
• To provide a comprehensive guide for developing SPR assays to analyze RNA-protein and RNA-small molecule interactions.
• To showcase SPR as a critical method for dissecting RNA structure-function relationships and identifying therapeutic agents.

Main Methods:

• Utilizing SPR biosensing for real-time, label-free affinity and kinetic measurements.
• Employing the streptavidin-biotin capturing method for efficient RNA immobilization.
• Developing experimental designs for analyzing interactions between RNA sequences, proteins, and small molecules.

Main Results:

• Demonstrated the versatility of SPR in analyzing diverse RNA interactions, including those with proteins and small molecules.
• Provided a detailed protocol for SPR assay development, covering fundamental concepts to data analysis.
• Successfully quantified binding affinities and kinetics of specific RNA interaction examples.

Conclusions:

• SPR is a powerful and quantitative method for studying RNA interactions.
• SPR facilitates the analysis of structure-function relationships for biological macromolecules and potential drug candidates.
• SPR-based assays are valuable tools in the search for novel RNA-targeting therapeutic agents.