Paresh Chandra Ray, Angela Fortner and Gopala K. Darbha
Department of Chemistry, Jackson State University, Jackson, MS, USA
Acknowledgements: Dr. Ray thanks NSF-CRIFMU grant # 0443547, NSF-PREM grant # DMR-0611539, and NIH-RCMI grant # G12RR13459 for their generous funding. A.F. thanks NSF/LSMAMP grant # HRD-0115807 for her scholarship during matriculation.
This represents the first nanoparticle-based fluorescence assay for probing single-strand DNA nuclease activity. Our simple assay with extremely high sensitivity will make it widely applicable and highly useful for convenient characterization of DNA/RNA cleavage reactions Given the simplicity, speed, and sensitivity of this approach, the described methodology could easily be extended to a high throughput format and become a new method of choice in HIV proteases and matrix metalloproteases (MMP) as well as the proteins involved in cellular apoptosis
(Published in J. Phys. Chem. B, as a letter, J. Phys. Chem. B, 2006, 110, 20745).
