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Updated: Sep 3, 2026

Optical Tweezers to Study RNA-Protein Interactions in Translation Regulation
Published on: February 12, 2022
Kinetic and Thermodynamic Analyses of RNA-Protein Interactions
Ryo Amano1, Takuya Hasegawa2, Taiichi Sakamoto3
1Center for Next-generation Biologics Research, National Institute of Infectious Diseases, Japan Institute for Health Security, Tokyo, Japan.
Abstract:
Recently created biophysical methods, such as surface plasmon resonance (SPR) and isothermal titration calorimetry (ITC), have been widely used to quantitatively study biomolecule interactions. The dissociation constant of the interaction with kinetic parameters, such as association rate constant and dissociation rate constant, can be obtained using SPR analysis. With thermodynamic parameters, such as enthalpy change and entropy change, the dissociation constant can be obtained by ITC analysis. Both methods differ not only in the type of information obtained but also in throughput and sample concentration. Analyzing the biophysical parameters of RNA-protein interactions will help us understand their functions in biological processes. In this chapter, we describe step-by-step SPR and ITC protocols suitable to study the kinetics and thermodynamics of RNA-protein interactions.
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