Direct immobilization of gangliosides onto gold-carboxymethyldextran sensor surfaces by hydrophobic interaction: Applications to antibody characterization

Abstract

We describe a novel immobilization technique to investigate interactions between immobilized gangliosides (GD3, GM1, and GM2) and their respective antibodies, antibody fragments, or binding partners using an optical biosensor. Immobilization was performed by direct injection onto a carboxymethyldextran sensor chip and did not require derivatization of the sensor surface or the ganglioside. The ganglioside appeared to bind to the sensor surface by hydrophobic interaction, leaving; the carbohydrate epitope available for antibody or, in the case of GM1, cholera toxin binding. The carbosyl group of the destran chains on the sensor surface did not appear to be involved in the immobilization as ev..