A, B, Chemical structures of the probes. C,
In vitro binding show superior discrimination between
tropoelastin and mature elastin for the (Eu-DOTA)-VVGS compared with
K(Eu-DOTA)-YPDH whereas Eu-ESMA binds equally to tropoelastin and mature
elastin. The new probes show less binding towards other proteins compared with
tropoelastin whereas the scrambled peptides do not bind to tropoelastin. Eu-DTPA
shows little binding to tropoelastin, collagen I and human serum albumin.
D-E, The saturation binding plots show that both probes bind to
tropoelastin whereas no binding to HSA was observed. Finally, no binding of the
scrambled probes to tropoelastin was observed. F, The KD
values showed that the probes have high affinity for tropoelastin. Statistical
differences between Kd values are shown.
No binding signifies that the data could not be fit, and lines indicate that the
assay was not performed (n=2 for elastin, n=3 for all other proteins). Eu:
europium(III), ESMA: elastin-specific MR contrast agent.