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Ligand binding to the nicotinic acetylcholine receptor is studied by surface plasmon resonance. Biotinylated bungarotoxin, immobilized on a streptavidin-coated gold film, binds nicotinic acetylcholine receptor both in detergent-solubilized and in lipid vesicle-reconstituted form with high specificity. In the latter case, nonspecific binding to the sensor surface is significantly reduced by reconstituting the receptor into poly(ethylene glycol)-lipid-containing sterically stabilized vesicles. By preincubation of a bulk nicotinic acetylcholine receptor sample with the competing ligands carbamoylcholine and decamethonium bromide, the subsequent specific binding of the receptor to the surface-immobilized bungarotoxin is reduced, depending on the concentration of competing ligand. This competition assay allows the determination of the dissociation constants of the acetylcholine receptor-carbamoylcholine complex. A K(D) = 3.5 × 10(-)(6) M for the detergent-solubilized receptor and a K(D) = 1.4 × 10(-)(5) M for the lipid vesicle-reconstituted receptor are obtained. For decamethonium bromide, a K(D) = 4.5 × 10(-)(5) M is determined for the detergent-solubilized receptor. This approach is of general importance for investigating ligand-receptor interactions in case of small ligand molecules by mass-sensitive techniques.

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This paper investigates conditions of low thermal budget N2O and NO oxidation with simultaneous accumulation of 0.5 to 1 at% nitrogen at the SiO2/Si interface of thin oxide layers. A nitrogen accumulation model is presented. It is concluded that the nitrogen accumulation should be realized with oxidizing conditions at the interface to silicon and it is proposed to control the NO partial pressure in reactor gas for the desired nitrogen amount at tolerable thermal budget.