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Single-molecule atomic force microscopy on live cells compares aptamer and antibody rupture forces

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Abstract

Some researchers have questioned whether synthetic aptamers bind as robustly as natural antibodies. To address this issue, we used single-molecule atomic force microscopy to measure the rupture force between a protein and both its aptamer and its antibody. The rupture force on live cell membranes between the aptamer and protein was 46 ± 26 pN; the force with the antibody was 68 ± 33 pN, we conclude that the binding forces are about equal.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the National Basic Research Program of China (2011CB911001), NSFC (No. 20121063), and the NSF EAPSI fellowship.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Chemistry and Physiology and Functional Genomics, Center for Research at the Bio/Nano interface, Shands Cancer Center, UF Genetics Institute, McKnight Brain Institute, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, 32611-7200, USA

    Meghan B. O’Donoghue & Weihong Tan

  2. Beijing National Laboratory for Molecular Sciences, Key Laboratory of Molecular Nanostructure and Nanotechnology, Institute of Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100190, China

    Xiaoli Shi & Xiaohong Fang

Authors
  1. Meghan B. O’Donoghue
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  2. Xiaoli Shi
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  3. Xiaohong Fang
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  4. Weihong Tan
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Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Xiaohong Fang or Weihong Tan.

Additional information

Published in the topical collection Biomimetic Recognition Elements for Sensing Applications with guest editor María Cruz Moreno-Bondi.

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O’Donoghue, M.B., Shi, X., Fang, X. et al. Single-molecule atomic force microscopy on live cells compares aptamer and antibody rupture forces. Anal Bioanal Chem 402, 3205–3209 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00216-011-5667-y

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00216-011-5667-y

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