Effect of a peptide modeling the nicotinic receptor binding site on the spectral and luminescent properties of dye complexes with cucurbit[8]uril

The paper presents the results of analysis of the effect of a high-affinity peptide (HAP) homologous to a fragment of the nicotinic acetylcholine receptor (nAChR) on the absorption and fluorescence spectra of thiazole orange and thioflavin T complexes with cucurbit[8]uril in aqueous solution. In the presence of HAP, a change in the absorption spectra of the dye complexes and a drop in the fluorescence intensity occur; for thiazole orange, the fluorescence intensity is restored to the initial level in the presence of α-bungarotoxin capable of high-affinity binding to nAChR. The proposed method make it possible to detect the presence of α-bungarotoxin.