Tuesday, 7th February 2006 (4307 views)

UK researchers have developed a technique using gold nanoparticles that can assess the activity of a critical class of enzymes, Chemistry World reports

The technique harnesses the power of gold nanoparticles coated with peptide and avidin, and could enable high-throughput screening of kinase inhibitors for the first time.

Researchers at the Centre for Nanoscale Science at the University of Liverpool incorporated gold nanoparticles into an assay for kinase inhibition.

The kinase was presented with the peptide-coated gold nanoparticles along with biotinylated ATP, in order to test for activity. Scientists observed that the terminal phosphate and biotin moiety transferred to the nanoparticles upon phosphorylation.

The particles were then mixed in with the avidin-coated gold naoparticles. It was found that biotin would cling to the avidin-coated particles if present and that the gold nanoparticles would aggregate.

The nanoparticles would also change colour from red to blue if phosphorylation had occurred and the biotin had been transferred to the nanoparticles.

"This is a simple and quick way to test potential inhibitors of kinase activity," Mathias Brust, who led the team alongside David Fernig, told Chemistry World.

He added: "This could provide a format for massive parallel testing on microplates for potential kinase inhibitors."

"It may have important implications for the future use of nanoparticle-based technologies in drug discovery."

 

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