Characterization of heparin-living bacteria interactions by chemiluminescence electrophoretic mobility shift assay

Metal-enhanced chemiluminescence: advanced chemiluminescence concepts for the 21st century

Chemiluminescent-based detection is entrenched throughout the biosciences today, such as in blotting, analyte and protein quantification and detection. While the biological applications of chemiluminescence are forever growing, the underlying principles of using a probe, an oxidizer and a catalyst (biological, organic or inorganic) have remained mostly unchanged for decades. Subsequently, chemiluminescence-based detection is fundamentally limited by the classical photochemical properties of reaction yield, quantum yield, etc. However, over the last 5 years, a new technology has emerged which looks set to fundamentally change the way we both think about and use chemiluminescence today. Metal surface plasmons can amplify chemiluminescence signatures, while low-power microwaves can complete reactions within seconds. In addition, thin metal films can convert spatially isotopic chemiluminescence into directional emission. In this forward looking tutorial review, we survey what could well be the next-generation chemiluminescent-based technologies.

Combinatorial selection of a single stranded DNA thioaptamer targeting TGF-beta1 protein

A phosphorothioate single-stranded DNA aptamer (thioaptamer) targeting transforming growth factor-beta1 (TGF-beta1) was isolated by in-vitro combinatorial selection. The aptamer selection procedure was designed to modify the backbone of single-stranded DNA aptamers, where 5' of both A and C are phosphorothioates, since this provides enhanced nuclease resistance as well as higher affinity than that of a phosphate counterpart. The thioaptamer selected from a combinatorial library (5x10(14) sequences) binds to TGF-beta1 protein with an affinity of 90 nM. In this report, sequence, predicted secondary structure, and binding affinity of the selected thioaptamer (T18_1_3) are presented.

Magnesium ion is an effective inhibitor of the binding of Escherichia coli to heparin

We investigated the effects of ions and temperature on the binding of E. coli to heparin using a chemiluminescence electrophoretic mobility shift assay. We found that magnesium ion is an effective inhibitor of the binding. The method can be readily applied to discover agents that can block the binding.