title: Surface plasmon resonance as a tool to characterize lectin-carbohydrate interactions.
abstract: Biosensors based on surface plasmon resonance (SPR) monitor changes in refractive index in the vicinity of a surface in a real-time manner, which allows rapid, label-free characterization of the interactions of various types of molecules, from quantitative measurements of binding kinetics, thermodynamics, and concentrations in complex samples to epitope analysis. This method is usually capable of analyzing affinities in the range of millimolar to picomolar and is sensitive (typically, the concentration range of the analyte is 0.1-100×Kd and the typical volumes needed are in the range of 50-150 μL). There are two major applications of SPR biosensors for the analysis of lectin-carbohydrate interactions: detailed characterization of the interaction (e.g., specificity, affinity, kinetics, stoichiometry) and screening of lectin and carbohydrate/glycoconjugate interactions for diagnosis, identification of endogenous ligands, or binding properties of interest. Care should be taken, since the interaction of lectin and carbohydrate on the solid phase is complicated by the nonhomogeneous conditions under which binding occurs. However, this may in fact mimic some biological conditions, such as those occurring in cell-cell interactions.
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Medical and Functional Glycomics, Graduate School of Advanced Life Science, and Frontier Research Center for Post-Genome Science and Technology, Hokkaido University, Sapporo, 001-0021, Japan, yshinohara@sci.hokudai.ac.jp.
authors.forename: Yasuro
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Shinohara
authors.forename: Jun-ichi
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Furukawa
mesh_terms: D055767:Immobilized Proteins / Q000737:chemistry / Q000378:metabolism; D007700:Kinetics; D009844:Oligosaccharides / Q000737:chemistry / Q000378:metabolism*; D037121:Plant Lectins / Q000378:metabolism*; D011134:Polysaccharides / Q000737:chemistry / Q000378:metabolism; D011485:Protein Binding; D013379:Substrate Specificity; D020349:Surface Plasmon Resonance / Q000379:methods*; D013816:Thermodynamics
chemical_list: D055767:Immobilized Proteins; D009844:Oligosaccharides; D037121:Plant Lectins; D011134:Polysaccharides