Surface Plasmon Resonance Evaluation of Various Aminoglycoside–RNA Hairpin Interactions Reveals Low Degree of Selectivity

Abstract
Aminoglycoside antibiotics, which are able to selectively bind to RNA, are considered to be an important lead in RNA-targeting drug discovery. In this study, surface plasmon resonance (SPR) was employed to explore the interaction of aminoglycosides with known tobramycin-binding RNA hairpins (aptamers) and an unrelated RNA hairpin. It was established that aminoglycosides have multiple interactions with RNA hairpins. Unexpectedly, the different hairpins showed comparable affinity for a set of related aminoglycosides. The observed absence of selectivity presents an extra hurdle in the discovery of novel aminoglycosides as specific drugs that target defined RNA hairpins.