Use of surface plasmon resonance to probe the equilibrium and dynamic aspects of interactions between biological macromolecules

Surface plasmon resonance biosensors have become increasingly popular for the qualitative and quantitative characterization of the specific binding of a mobile reactant to a binding partner immobilized on the sensor surface. This article reviews the use of this new technique to measure the binding affinities and the kinetic constants of reversible interactions between biological macromolecules. Immobilization techniques, the most commonly employed experimental strategies, and various analytical approaches are summarized. In recent years, several sources of potential artifacts have been identified: immobilization of the binding partner, steric hindrance of binding to adjacent binding sites at the sensor surface, and finite rate of mass transport of the mobile reactant to the sensor surface. Described here is the influence of these artifacts on the measured binding kinetics and equilibria, together with suggested control experiments.