Novel protein kinase activity assays based on functional nanomaterials

Abstract

Protein phosphorylation catalyzed by protein kinase is one of the most ubiquitous and important post-translational modification and aberrant phosphorylation is closely related with a variety of human diseases, especially cancer. As the critical component of intracellular signal pathways, protein kinases are involved in regulating a number of important physiological processes, such as cell growth, metabolism, differentiation, and proliferation. Therefore, developing potent and specific analytical methods of protein kinases are of great significance for biochemical fundamental research, disease diagnosis and treatment, and drug development. In recent years, the growing number of functional nanomaterials have been exploited in the development of protein kinase biosensors. Due to their unique optical, electrical, chemical, and catalytic properties, nanomaterials play crucial roles in several key processes in bio-sensing, such as signal generation and transduction, biosensing interface fabrication, as well as biochemical signal amplification, which greatly improves the analytical performance of kinase biosensors. This paper briefly summarizes the generally used molecular recognition mechanisms of kinase detections, then gives a systematic overview of the nanomaterials-based protein kinases assays classified by the different analytical techniques. Consequently, the future development of protein kinase biosensors is prospected.