Using photons to manipulate enzyme inhibition by an azobenzene-modified nucleic acid probe
- 21 April 2009
- journal article
- research article
- Published by Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
- Vol. 106 (16), 6489-6494
- https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.0812402106
Abstract
The ability to inhibit an enzyme in a specific tissue with high spatial resolution combined with a readily available antidote should find many biomedical applications. We have accomplished this by taking advantage of the cis–trans photoisomerization of azobenzene molecules. Specifically, we positioned azobenzene moieties within the DNA sequence complementary to a 15-base-long thrombin aptamer and then linked the azobenzene-modified cDNA to the aptamer by a polyethylene glycol (PEG) linker to make a unimolecular conjugate. During the photoisomerization of azobenzene by visible light, the inhibition of thrombin is disabled because the probe hybridizes with the cDNA in the trans-azobenzene conformation so that the aptamer cannot bind its target thrombin. However, when UV light is applied, melting of the hairpin structure (duplex) is induced via trans-to-cis conversion, thereby changing conformation of the aptamer and making the aptamer free to bind to and inhibit its target thrombin. By using standard clotting assays, we measured the IC200 of various probe designs in both states and concluded the feasibility of using photon energy to temporally and spatially regulate these enzymatic reactions. Thus, we can report the development of DNA probes in the form of photon-controllable (thrombin) inhibitors, termed PCIs, and we expect that this approach will be highly beneficial in future biomedical and pharmaceutical applications.Keywords
This publication has 41 references indexed in Scilit:
- Spectral Tuning of Azobenzene Photoswitches for Biological ApplicationsAngewandte Chemie-International Edition, 2009
- Holographic photolysis of caged neurotransmittersNature Methods, 2008
- Molecular assembly for high-performance bivalent nucleic acid inhibitorProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 2008
- Novel photo-switching using azobenzene functional materialsJournal of Photochemistry and Photobiology A: Chemistry, 2006
- The Incorporation of a Photoisomerizable Amino Acid into Proteins in E. coliJournal of the American Chemical Society, 2005
- Clear-cut photo-regulation of the formation and dissociation of the DNA duplex by modified oligonucleotide involving multiple azobenzenesEncyclopedia of Life Sciences, 2005
- RNA as drug and antidoteNature, 2002
- Oligonucleotide inhibitors of human thrombin that bind distinct epitopesJournal of Molecular Biology, 1997
- In vitro selection of RNA molecules that bind specific ligandsNature, 1990
- Systematic Evolution of Ligands by Exponential Enrichment: RNA Ligands to Bacteriophage T4 DNA PolymeraseScience, 1990