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Artificial ligands that recognize membrane receptors with high affinity and specificity provide a means for the precise control of receptor activity and the resulting biological functions. In the present work, we focused on a previously reported DNA aptamer that is a functional mimic of fibroblast growth factor (FGF) and evaluated its receptor specificity. It was revealed that the aptamer works as a selective agonist for FGF receptor (FGFR) 1 owing to its high specificity toward the receptor, despite the high sequence homology in the extracellular domains of the FGFR family. The excellent receptor-type specificity of the aptamer, which is distinct from that of native ligands, should offer new possibilities as a chemical tool to study the biological role of growth factor receptors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Interferon gamma (IFN-γ) is a cytokine that is mainly secreted from immune cells. It plays an important role in regulating neighboring cellular activities through interactions with cell membrane proteins. Because of its biological importance, there has been increasing demand for a biosensor that can respond to IFN-γ. Here, we report a fluorescent aptamer sensor that targets IFN-γ. The 25-nt IFN-γ aptamer was converted into a turn-on fluorescent sensor by labeling the 3'-end with fluorescein. The designed sensor achieved fluorescence sensing of IFN-γ with nanomolar affinity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mouse lactate dehydrogenase-X (mLDH-X) was designed as a triple-resonance NMR reporter protein. The mLDH-X reporter catalyzes the conversion of a 13C-labeled pyruvic acid derivative (substrate) to a lactic acid derivative (product), which can be detected selectively by 1D ¹H-{ 13C-13C'} triple-resonance NMR. The expression of mLDH-X fused protein was successfully detected by monitoring the triple-resonance ¹HNMR signal of the product. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We report a 19F MRI probe for the specific detection and imaging of -OCl. Our designed probe, having p-aminophenyl alkyl scaffold, reacted expeditiously with -OCl to produce a trifluoroethanol. Concomitant with the reaction, the 19F chemical shift changed by 2.6 ppm, allowing the visualization of -OCl-dependent probe-to-product conversion using 19F MRI. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Benzenesulfonamide is a known inhibitor of carbonic anhydrase (CA). 8-[4-(Aminosulfonyl)phenyl]-BODIPY is designed as an inhibitordye conjugate for turn-on fluorescence sensing of CA, and binds specifically to bovine carbonic anhydrase in water with Ka = 1.04 « 0.25 © 107M-1 (Kd = 0.96 © 10-7 M) with concomitant increase in the fluorescence intensity of the former by a factor of 2.52.8 because of the steric constraint imposed on the probe by the enzyme. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]