Electrophoretic Approaches for Investigating Plant-Derived Compound Interactions With DNA and Proteins

Plant-derived compounds are increasingly recognized as promising therapeutic agents due to their broad biological activities and structural diversity, making their interactions with DNA and proteins central to understanding mechanisms of action and guiding drug discovery. Electrophoretic techniques probe these interactions by tracking changes in electrophoretic mobility, conformation, complex formation, and biopolymer integrity. This review surveys electrophoretic strategies for characterizing plant-derived compound-DNA and -protein interactions, covering fundamental DNA-binding modes (intercalation, groove binding, electrostatic association, cleavage), representative phytochemicals and extracts, and analytical challenges of complex plant matrices, including chemical heterogeneity, synergistic and antagonistic effects, and active-constituent identification. Particular attention is given to capillary electrophoresis-based approaches (affinity CE, CE, and pressure-assisted frontal analysis) and gel-based methods (agarose gel electrophoresis, native PAGE, SDS-PAGE). The literature shows capillary electrophoresis excels at quantifying binding affinity, stoichiometry, and specificity, whereas gel electrophoresis better visualizes ligand-induced changes in DNA topology and protein behavior. HSA and BSA dominate as model proteins, while advanced methods remain underapplied to chemically complex extracts, gaps pointing toward broader protein targets and natural-product systems. Integrating mass spectrometry, advanced detection, and data-driven approaches could further strengthen the mechanistic and quantitative reach of electrophoretic analysis in this field.