Modulation of DNAzyme Activity via Butanol Dehydration

Abstract

Understanding the activity of biomolecules in cosolvent systems is important for catalysis, separation and developing biosensors. The majority of previously studied solvents are either phase separated with water or miscible with water. Butanol was recently used to extract water for the conjugation of DNA to gold nanoparticles. In this work, the effect of butanol on the activity of a few RNA‐cleaving DNAzymes was studied. A 130‐fold improvement in sensitivity for the Na+‐specific EtNa DNAzyme was observed, and butanol also improved the activity of another Na+‐specific DNAzyme, NaA43T by a few folds. However, when divalent metal ions were used for both EtNa and 17E DNAzymes, the activity was inhibited. A main driven force for enhanced DNAzyme activity is the concentration effect due to butanol dehydration. This study provides insights into the interplay between DNA, metal ions and organic solvents, and such an understanding might be useful for developing sensitive biosensors.

Quantified instant conjugation of peptides on a nanogold surface for tunable ice recrystallization inhibition

“…It is worth noting that the addition of butanol to the aqueous phase was done six times to make the aqueous phase completely soluble in the organic phase as the solubility of water in butanol is 20.1%. Since butanol extracts most of the water, 41 the remaining peptides and GNPs tend to pile up to form tiny precipitates in step 4, which is why the solution becomes transparent. The precipitate actually was a “solid solution” that greatly accelerates peptide anchored on GNP via Au-S bonding, which was driven by the dehydrating of butanol.…”