Partial-Filling Techniques for Affinity Capillary Electrophoresis to Probe Receptor-Ligand Interacti

Partial-filling affinity capillary electrophoresis (PFACE) is a versatile analytical technique to probe bimolecular non-covalent interactions and to estimate binding constants between receptors and ligands. In this article we demonstrate the use of PFACE and two modifications to PFACE: flow-through PFACE and multiple-step ligand injection to examine the binding of D-Ala-D-Ala terminus peptides to vancomycin from Streptomyces orientalis and arylsulphonamides to carbonic anhydrase B.

During the past decade advances in molecular biology have provided scientists with an array of information concerning biological interactions. This information, focusing foremost on receptor–ligand interactions, has made the development of new analytical techniques an important area of research. Because of the large number of molecular interactions currently known, and those yet discovered, techniques that can analyse samples reproducibly and quantify the level of interaction between receptors and ligands are in great need.

There is a major need for developing analytical technologies that aid in the screening of drugs for a variety of healthrelated problems. Alzheimer’s disease, HIV and cancer are but a few of the many human diseases for which a rapid screening technique would expedite the development of a cure. Because research is both labour intensive and expensive the development of new instrumentation and techniques that can easily assess the affinity of ligands for receptors is important.

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