Voltammetric investigation of avidin–biotin complex formation using an electroactive bisbiotinyl compound Original Research Article

Formation of avidin–biotin complex was investigated using bisbiotinyl thionine (BBT) by means of voltammetric techniques. Thionine is an electroactive compound and has two amino groups that are necessary for the reaction with a biotinylation reagent. The biotinylation of thionine produces a new reagent with two biotin moieties at each end of thionine. Three BBTs of different lengths of the spacer that connects the biotin moiety to the thionine moiety were prepared. The avidin–biotin binding assay was achieved by measuring the electrode response of the thionine moiety in BBT. The binding affinity and the conformation of complex, which depended on the length of spacer, are discussed. BBT in which the spacer is shortest (BBT-S, distance between carbonyl group of the two biotin moieties: 11 Å) binds with only one avidin molecule. BBT with medium length of spacer (BBT-M, 28.8 Å) forms the complex with two avidin molecules. BBT with the longest spacer (BBT-L, 46.6 Å) allows binding with two avidin molecules as well as intramolecular binding within one avidin molecule. The affinity constants of BBT-S, BBT-M and BBT-L for avidin were estimated to be 7.0 × 1012 M−1, 3.2 × 1012 M−1 and 4.0 × 1012 M−1, respectively.