Ligand-binding assay based on microfluidic chemotaxis of porphyrin receptors.

Recent studies have shown that enzymes undergo chemotaxis up substrate gradients during catalysis. One important avenue to identify the molecular level origins of this phenomenon is the ligand-protein binding that occurs even in the absence of catalytic turnover. Here, the chemotaxis of zinc porphyrin as a cofactor mimic was observed by imposing a concentration gradient of organic amines in the microfluidic device. Their axial ligations led to the directed motions of porphyrin receptors. The dissociation constant for selected recognition could be obtained by measuring the chemotactic shift as a function of ligand content, which is associated with both the binding strength and the steric hindrance of the specific ligand. Finally, a statistical thermodynamic model was derived, relating the change of Gibbs free energy (ΔG) in the binding process to the directional migration of receptors. The theoretical model agreed quantitatively with experimental results, elucidating that ΔG of reversible binding essentially drives molecular chemotaxis.

Sorting and Screening of Quaternary Ammonium Lipoids for Membrane-Binding Assays Based on Electrochemiluminescent Cocrystalline Nanosheets.

Being synthetic supplements to natural lipids, lipoids now play an increasingly significant role in nanopore sequencing, olfactory sensing, and nanoimpact electrochemistry. Yet, systematic comparisons to sort and screen qualified lipoids are lacking for specific scenario applications. Here, taking the merits of electrochemiluminescence (ECL) in probing biointerfacial events, a new metric was proposed for the evaluation of substrate candidacy in the pool of hyamine bromides (ABs), that are used to cohere with electron-rich porphyrins for deep eutectics-like ECL matrices. Using a state-of-the-art framework emitter, the cocrystalline nanosheet of C70 and zinc meso-tetraphenylporphine (ZnTPP) via simple liquid-liquid interfacial deposition, 6 out of 20 ABs were inspected and identified as not only amenable filmogens but excitonic sensitizers in key terms of ECL strength as well as voltammetric characteristics. Among them, the methyltrioctyl (MTOAB) headgroup stood out; while the ECL activity at ZnTPP-C70@MTOAB was proven to be dictated by ionophoresis across multilamellar lipoidal layers. Thus, target-induced membrane deformation would let coreactant scavengers in to quench ECL, which enabled assays on two less visited bioprocesses regarding (1) the lipid solubility of ipratropium bromide, an aerosol medication for rhinitis treatment; and (2) the resorption of selenosugar as the central metabolite of Se-proteins on kidney glomerular basement barrier. Both resulted in nice membrane-binding measurements with comparable dissociation constants to reported microfluidic ELISA methods. By and large, though still being rudimentary, such parametrization of ECL-able biofilm would set up a basic ECL toolbox for archiving and resourcing multilipoidal even lipid-lipoid combos to handle the realistic (sub)cytomembrane processes in the future.