Force interactions between Yersiniae lipopolysaccharides and monoclonal antibodies: An optical tweezers study

This article reports the force spectroscopy investigation of interactions between lipopolysaccharides (LPSs) of two species from Yersinia genus and complementary (or heterologous) monoclonal antibodies (mAbs). We have obtained the experimental data by optical trapping on the "sensitized polystyrene microsphere - sensitized glass substrate" model system at its approach - retraction in vertical plane. We detected non-specific interactions in low-amplitude areas on histograms mainly due to physicochemical properties of abiotic surface and specific interactions in complementary pairs "antigen - antibodies" in high-amplitude areas (100-120 pN) on histograms. The developed measurement procedure can be used for detection of rupture forces in other molecular pairs.