Study on Specific Binding Interaction Between Protein and DNA Aptamer via Dynamic Force Spectroscopy

Recently the need to design nanoscale, sensitive and flexible bio-sensors or biotic-abiotic interface keeps increasing. One of the essential challenges on this objective is to grasp a thorough understanding of the mechanism governing binding interaction between bio-molecules. In this study we aim to demonstrate the binding specificity and reveal force interaction between the anti-coagulation protein thrombin and the single-stranded DNA thrombin aptamer by application of Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM). The thiolated aptamer was deposited onto gold substrate, and then repeatedly brought into contact with a thrombin-coated AFM tip, and force drop-offs during the pull-off were measured to determine the unbinding force between the thrombin-aptamer pair. The results from experiment show that the thrombin-aptamer pair has specific binding and the force between the pair exhibits loading rate dependence. It was shown that the binding forces of the thrombin-aptamer interaction increases with growth of loading rates. The average binding force for a single thrombin/aptamer pair increased from 20 pN to 40 pN, with loading rate changes from 500pN/s to 13500pN/s. Distribution of the unbinding forces measured for each loading rate can be explained on the basis of single energy barrier model for molecular bond breakage.