Lundonia Biotech

TechNotes No. 8-2000

Binding of a plant lectin — horseradish peroxidase conjugate to a-sialic acid (a-Neu5Ac) GlycoWell™ plates.

Introduction
Binding of lectins to immobilized surfaces and subsequent inhibition of such a binding event is often used for evaluating lectin inhibitors. The use of GlycoWell™ plates facilitates an ELISA assay involving the binding of lectins to the wells. This TechNote describes the binding of an a-Neu5Ac recognizing lectin, Limax flavus, to a-Neu5Ac GlycoWell™ plates.

Experimental

Lectin incubation. Add 100 µL lectin solution to each well. Leave for 45 min
Washing. Empty the wells and wash three times with CovaBuffer. Leave the last wash in the wells for 15 min. Wash with citrate/phosphate buffer once.
Substrate reaction. Add 100 µL substrate solution to each well. Read optical density at 490 nm in a microwell plate reader.

Discussion
The results demonstrate that an a-Neu5Ac GlycoWell™ plate efficiently binds an a-Neu5Ac-recognizing plant lectin, Limax flavus (Figure 1). Thus, GlycoWell plates are suitable for detecting carbohydrate binding properties of proteins.

Materials

GlycoWell™ plates SW-00-001 (N-acetyl, blank) and SW-01-004 (a-Neu5Ac).
PBS buffer pH 7.2, 0.15 M Na⁺: 24.0 g NaCl, 0.6 g KCl, 3.46 g Na₂HPO₄·2H₂O, 0.6 g KH₂PO₄, 3 L H₂O.
TWEEN/PBS: 0.10 mL TWEEN 20, 200 mL PBS.
CovaBuffer: 116.9 g NaCl, 10.0 g MgSO₄·7H₂O, 0.50 mL TWEEN 20, 1 L PBS.
Citrate-Phosphate buffer, pH 5.0: 7.30 g citric acid, 11.86 g Na₂HPO₄·2H₂O, 1 L H₂O.
Lectin stock: 1.0 mg Limax flavus-horseradish peroxidase conjugate (EY Labs H5101), 1.0 mL TWEEN/PBS.
Lectin solution: 5 µL Lectin stock, 15.0 mL TWEEN/PBS, filtered through a 0.22 micron filter.
Substrate solution: 6.0 mg o-phenylenediamine, 10.0 mL citrate/phosphate buffer, 5 µL H₂O₂, freshly prepared.

Figure 1. A Limax flavus-horseradish peroxidase conjugate binds to a-Neu5Ac GlycoWell™ plates (SW-01-004), but not to a GlycoWell™ plate devoid of saccharide (SW-00-001).