Protein-Lipid Interaction by Fluorescence (PLIF) to Characterize and Screen for Inhibitors of Protein-Phosphoinositide Interactions

Phosphoinositides are key signaling and regulatory phospholipids that mediate important pathophysiological processes. This is achieved through the interaction of their phosphorylated inositol head group with a wide range of protein domains. Therefore, being able to determine the phosphoinositide specificity for effector protein is essential to the understanding of its cellular function. This unit describes a novel method named Protein-Lipid Interaction by Fluorescence, or PLIF. PLIF is a fast, reliable and high throughput assay that allows determination of the phosphoinositide specificity of proteins, simultaneously providing relative affinities. In addition, PLIF is suitable for screening inhibitors of protein- phosphoinositide interaction, allowing identification of potential pharmacological compounds. © 2017 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.