title: Peeking into a secret world of pore-forming toxins: membrane binding processes studied by surface plasmon resonance.
abstract: Pore-formation in cell membranes is used by many toxins to kill cells. It is usually a process involving multiple steps that are difficult to analyse at the molecular level. The use of surface plasmon resonance (SPR) has only recently been introduced into the study of pore-forming toxins (PFT). It can give useful data mostly on the first steps of the pore-forming process; the binding to the lipid membranes. In particular, it can make unique contributions to our knowledge of ligand specificity and the kinetics of binding. This mini-review summarizes some recent SPR studies of PFT.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biology, Biotechnical Faculty, University of Ljubljana, Vecna pot 111, Ljubljana 1000, Slovenia. gregor.anderluh@uni-lj.si
authors.forename: Gregor
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Anderluh
authors.forename: Peter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Macek
authors.forename: Jeremy H
authors.initials: JH
authors.lastname: Lakey
mesh_terms: D001665:Binding Sites; D002462:Cell Membrane / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000378:metabolism*; D003064:Cnidarian Venoms / Q000737:chemistry / Q000378:metabolism; D003603:Cytotoxins / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000378:metabolism*; D008051:Lipid Bilayers / Q000737:chemistry / Q000378:metabolism; D008563:Membrane Lipids / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000378:metabolism*; D017433:Protein Structure, Secondary; D020349:Surface Plasmon Resonance / Q000379:methods*
chemical_list: D003064:Cnidarian Venoms; D003603:Cytotoxins; D008051:Lipid Bilayers; D008563:Membrane Lipids; C012307:equinatoxin