Premium
A Molecular Tuning Fork in Single‐Molecule Mechanochemical Sensing
Author(s) -
Mandal Shankar,
Koirala Deepak,
Selvam Sangeetha,
Ghimire Chiran,
Mao Hanbin
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
angewandte chemie international edition
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 5.831
H-Index - 550
eISSN - 1521-3773
pISSN - 1433-7851
DOI - 10.1002/anie.201502580
Subject(s) - biosensor , dna , tuning fork , analyte , molecular recognition , molecule , transduction (biophysics) , nanotechnology , signal (programming language) , materials science , biological system , biophysics , chemistry , computer science , physics , biology , acoustics , quantum mechanics , biochemistry , vibration , programming language
The separate arrangement of target recognition and signal transduction in conventional biosensors often compromises the real‐time response and can introduce additional noise. To address these issues, we combined analyte recognition and signal reporting by mechanochemical coupling in a single‐molecule DNA template. We incorporated a DNA hairpin as a mechanophore in the template, which, under a specific force, undergoes stochastic transitions between folded and unfolded hairpin structures (mechanoescence). Reminiscent of a tuning fork that vibrates at a fixed frequency, the device was classified as a molecular tuning fork (MTF). By monitoring the lifetime of the folded and unfolded hairpins with equal populations, we were able to differentiate between the mono‐ and bivalent binding modes during individual antibody‐antigen binding events. We anticipate these mechanospectroscopic concepts and methods will be instrumental for the development of novel bioanalyses.