A Simple Mechanical Model for Synthetic Catch Bonds

Dansuk and Keten have demonstrated that a simple mechanical design based on a tweezer-like mechanism can exhibit catch bond characteristics under thermal excitations. By introducing a switch design with broader energy landscape than the ligand binding site landscape, they achieve force-dependent kinetics that prolongs ligand lifetime through formation of secondary interactions. This serial arrangement of a soft conformational switch with a stiff ligand interaction results in catch bonds. The force versus lifetime curves are tunable by changing these design parameters.