title: Study of nucleic acid-ligand interactions by capillary electrophoretic techniques: A review.
abstract: The understanding of nucleic acids-ligand (proteins, nucleic acids or various xenobiotics) interactions is of fundamental value, representing the basis of complex mechanisms that govern life. The development of improved therapeutic strategies, as well as the much expected breakthroughs in case of currently untreatable diseases often relies on the elucidation of such biomolecular interactions. Capillary electrophoresis (CE) is becoming an indispensable analytical tool in this field of study due to its high versatility, ease of method development, high separation efficiency, but most importantly due to its low sample and buffer volume requirements. Most often the availability of the compounds of interest is severely limited either by the complexity of the purification procedures or by the cost of their synthesis. Several reviews covering the investigation of protein-protein and protein-xenobiotics interactions by CE have been published in the recent literature; however none of them promotes the use of these techniques in the study of nucleic acid interactions. Therefore, various CE techniques applicable for such interaction studies are discussed in detail in the present review. The paper points out the particular features of these techniques with respect the estimation of the binding parameters, in analytical signal acquisition and data processing, as well as their current shortcomings and limitations.
authors.affiliation: Analytical Chemistry Department, "Iuliu Hațieganu" University of Medicine and Pharmacy, 4, Louis Pasteur St., 400349 Cluj-Napoca, Romania; Laboratory of Pharmaceutical Analysis, Faculty of Medicine and Pharmacy, Research Institute for Health Sciences and Technology, University of Mons-UMONS, Place du Parc 20, 7000 Mons, Belgium.
authors.forename: I O
authors.initials: IO
authors.lastname: Neaga
authors.affiliation: Analytical Chemistry Department, "Iuliu Hațieganu" University of Medicine and Pharmacy, 4, Louis Pasteur St., 400349 Cluj-Napoca, Romania. Electronic address: bodokie@umfcluj.ro.
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Bodoki
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Pharmaceutical Analysis, Faculty of Medicine and Pharmacy, Research Institute for Health Sciences and Technology, University of Mons-UMONS, Place du Parc 20, 7000 Mons, Belgium.
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Hambye
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Pharmaceutical Analysis, Faculty of Medicine and Pharmacy, Research Institute for Health Sciences and Technology, University of Mons-UMONS, Place du Parc 20, 7000 Mons, Belgium.
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Blankert
authors.affiliation: Analytical Chemistry Department, "Iuliu Hațieganu" University of Medicine and Pharmacy, 4, Louis Pasteur St., 400349 Cluj-Napoca, Romania.
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Oprean
mesh_terms: D002623:Chemistry Techniques, Analytical / Q000379:methods*; D019075:Electrophoresis, Capillary / Q000379:methods; D008024:Ligands; D009696:Nucleic Acids / Q000032:analysis* / Q000378:metabolism*; D011485:Protein Binding / Q000502:physiology
chemical_list: D008024:Ligands; D009696:Nucleic Acids
keywords: Bioaffinity studies; Capillary electrophoresis; Data analysis; Nucleic acid; Nucleic acid–ligand interactions