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We used atomic force microscopy to measure the binding forces between Mucin1 (MUC1) peptide and a single-chain variable fragment (scFv) antibody selected from a scFv library screened against MUC1. This binding interaction is central to the design of molecules used for targeted delivery of radioimmunotherapeutic agents for prostate and breast cancer treatment. Our experiments separated the specific binding interaction from nonspecific interactions by tethering the antibody and MUC1 molecules to the atomic force microscope tip and sample surface with flexible polymer spacers. Rupture force magnitude and elastic characteristics of the spacers allowed identification of the rupture events corresponding to different numbers of interacting proteins. We used dynamic force spectroscopy to estimate the intermolecular potential widths and equivalent thermodynamic off rates for monovalent, bivalent, and trivalent interactions. Measured interaction potential parameters agree with the results of molecular docking simulation. Our results demonstrate that an increase of the interaction valency leads to a precipitous decline in the dissociation rate. Binding forces measured for monovalent and multivalent interactions match the predictions of a Markovian model for the strength of multiple uncorrelated bonds in a parallel configuration. Our approach is promising for comparison of the specific effects of molecular modifications as well as for determination of the best configuration of antibody-based multivalent targeting agents.atomic force microscopy ͉ multivalency ͉ radioimmunmotherapy ͉ binding affinity I nteractions between biological molecules drive a vast variety of cellular processes and span a wide range of strength and complexity. Multivalent interactions where several binding units combine to produce superior binding strength play an important role in adaptive immune response (1) and intercellular adhesion (2), as well as in the mechanism of action of many pharmaceuticals (3). Clinical researchers have used multivalency as an affinity-enhancing approach (4, 5) in a variety of immunotherapies and imaging techniques to target specific tissues (6, 7).Linking several molecules into a large multivalent binding construct also creates bulky agents that exhibit reduced tissue penetration and have a higher probability of accumulation in liver (8). Therefore, a better understanding of the multivalent binding is necessary for the creation of optimized agents that balance binding efficiency and molecular size. Quantitative characterization of multivalent interactions is also important for understanding the basic biophysics of complex molecular systems.The last decade saw an explosion of interaction force measurement techniques that allowed researchers to measure and apply molecular level stresses (9-11). Atomic force microscopy (AFM) probes ligand-receptor interactions by simply pulling off the ligand from the receptor using external force (12). Kinetic approaches to the binding force measurements, such as dynamic force spectroscopy ...

We present the measurement of the force required to rupture a single protein-sugar bond using a methodology that provides selective discrimination between specific and nonspecific binding events and helps verify the presence of a single functional molecule on the atomic force microscopy tip. In particular, the interaction force between a polymer-tethered concanavalin-A protein (ConA) and a similarly tethered mannose carbohydrate was measured as 47 +/- 9 pN at a bond loading rate of approximately 10 nN/s. Computer simulations of the polymer molecular configurations were used to determine the angles that the polymers could sweep out during binding and, in conjunction with mass spectrometry, used to separate the angular effects from the effects due to a distribution of tether lengths. We find that when using commercially available polymer tethers that vary in length from 19 to 29 nm, the angular effects are relatively small and the rupture distributions are dominated by the 10-nm width of the tether length distribution. In all, we show that tethering both a protein and its ligand allows for the determination of the single-molecule bond rupture force with high sensitivity and includes some validation for the presence of a single-tethered functional molecule on the atomic force microscopy tip.

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A proton NMR method is described for determining the orientation of a porphyrin within the heme pocket of a hemoprotein. The Pattern of the hyperfine-shifted heme methyl resonances in low-spin ferric model compounds is demonstrated to characteristically reflect the position of a localized low-symmetry perturbation on the X system. The specific assignments via deuteration of the two interconvertible sets of methyl resonances observed for deuteroporphyrin-reconstituted sperm whale metmyoglobin cyanide lead to the conclusion that the low-symmetry perturbations on the heme due to the apoprotein contacts differ for the two protein components by a 1800 rotation about the a-y meso axis. Hence the heme in the reconstituted myoglobin is "disordered" in solution, and the altered functional properties of the reconstituted protein cannot be simply attributed to the local effect of the heme substituent. This NMR technique has applicability for determining the relative heme orientation in related hemoproteins, and may clarify the origin of doubling of heme resonances observed in several native hemoproteins.Detailed three-dimensional structures of several myoglobins (Mbs) (1, 2), hemoglobins (Hbs) (1,(3)(4)(5), and cytochromes c (6) are available which indicate that the asymmetric porphyrin, I, R2,R4 = vinyl, occupies a completely unique position within R H CH3

Solution 1D and 2D NMR, together with limited isotope labeling, have led to the assignment of the heme, axial His, and numerous heme contact residues in sperm whale, horse, and human deoxy myoglobin. The paramagnetic relaxivity leads to increased line widths and shorter T 1s with little compensation in increased dispersion due to dipolar shifts. Hence only limited, but crucial F helix standard backbone sequence specific assignment could be made for heme cavity residues. Numerous other residues with significant dipolar shifts could be assigned from the characteristic scalar connectivities and dipolar contacts to the heme predicted by the crystal structure. It is concluded that the complete and unambiguous assignment of the heme pyrrole substituent signals is not attainable by 2D NMR alone without either partial deuterium labeling of the heme or parallel assignment of key residues in dipolar contact with the heme; hence the present study revises some earlier assignments. The resulting dipolar shifts for nonligated residues, together with the crystal coordinates of deoxy myoglobin, were used to determine the orientation relative to the heme and the anisotropy of the paramagnetic susceptibility tensor. The significant anisotropy, |Δχ| ∼1 × 10-9 m3/mol, however, is shown to result in dipolar shift with reciprocal square, rather than just reciprocal, absolute temperature dependence, which is indicative of large zero field splitting rather than g-tensor anisotropy. The appropriate equation for a 5B2 ground state allows an estimate of the zero-field splitting, D ∼−10 cm-1, which is in good agreement with earlier results. The present NMR data favor a spin-only magnetic moment with S = 2 and D ∼−10 cm-1 over a ground state with S < 2 and significant orbital contribution (Hendrich and Debrunner, 1989).

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We present evidence of multivalent interactions between a single protein molecule and multiple carbohydrates at a pH where the protein can bind four ligands. The evidence is based not only on measurements of the force required to rupture the bonds formed between ConcanavalinA (ConA) and α-D-mannose, but also on an analysis of the polymer-extension force curves to infer the polymer architecture that binds the protein to the cantilever and the ligands to the substrate. We find that 2 although the rupture forces for multiple carbohydrate connections to a single protein are larger than the rupture force for a single connection, they do not scale additively with increasing number. Specifically, the most common rupture forces are approximately 46, 66, and 85 pN, which we argue corresponds to 1, 2, and 3 ligands being pulled simultaneously from a single protein as corroborated by an analysis of the linkage architecture. As in our previous work polymer tethers allow us to discriminate between specific and non-specific binding. We analyze the binding configuration (i.e. serial versus parallel connections) through fitting the polymer stretching data with modified Worm-Like Chain (WLC) models that predict how the effective stiffness of the tethers is affected by multiple connections. This analysis establishes that the forces we measure are due to single proteins interacting with multiple ligands, the first force spectroscopy study that establishes single-molecule multivalent binding unambiguously.