title: A rapid microfluidic mixer for high-viscosity fluids to track ultrafast early folding kinetics of G-quadruplex under molecular crowding conditions.
abstract: Tracking the folding kinetics of macromolecules under molecular crowding conditions represents a tremendous challenge due to the high viscosity of the solution. In this paper, we report a unique T-type microfluidic mixer with seven consecutive ω-shaped baffles for fast mixing of high-viscosity fluids. Numerical simulations and experimental characterizations proved that the micromixer could achieve a mixing time of 579.4 μs for solutions with viscosities about 33.6 times that of pure water. Over a 1000-fold improvement in mixing dead time was accomplished in comparison to those reported previously. We further used this highly efficient micromixer to track the early folding kinetics of human telomere G-quadruplex under molecular crowding conditions. Results indicated an exponential process in the initial folding phase of G-quadruplex, and the G-quadruplex formed a more compact structure under higher degrees of molecular crowding conditions.
authors.affiliation: Britton Chance Center for Biomedical Photonics at Wuhan National Laboratory for Optoelectronics, Department of Biomedical Engineering, College of Life Science and Technology, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan 430074, China.
authors.forename: Ying
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: Youzhi
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Xu
authors.forename: Xiaojun
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Feng
authors.forename: Bi-Feng
authors.initials: BF
authors.lastname: Liu
mesh_terms: D001483:Base Sequence; D003198:Computer Simulation; D054856:G-Quadruplexes; D006801:Humans; D057446:Hydrodynamics; D007700:Kinetics; D046210:Microfluidic Analytical Techniques / Q000379:methods*; D009838:Oligodeoxyribonucleotides / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics; D016615:Telomere / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics; D014783:Viscosity
chemical_list: D009838:Oligodeoxyribonucleotides