Fig. 3: Biophysical characterization of photoswitch candidates.

A Differential scanning fluorimetry of photoswitches. The first derivative of the fluorescence curves (left) displays a progression of photoswitch-bound curves towards the apo curve after illumination. Increasing the illumination time (right) results in a progressive decrease in the melting temperature for all photoswitches: istradefylline, blue circles; StilSwitch1, black rightward triangles; StilSwitch2, red squares; StilSwitch3, yellow diamonds; StilSwitch4, green upwards triangles. Data are displayed as mean values ± the confidence interval calculated at 0.05 significance. Technical replicates were collected for each data point throughout multiple experiments using aliquots of the same protein sample. The number of replicates for each data point and the calculated confidence intervals are detailed in the source data file. The change in thermal shifts (ΔΔTm) of the photoswitches are: Istradefylline −4.04 °C, Switch2 −5.15 °C, Switch3 −8.67 °C, Switch4 −6.98 °C. B UV/Vis Absorption Spectra of photoswitches absorption under dark (solid line) and illuminated (dashed line) conditions in buffer (blue) and bond to the protein (yellow). All stilbene-derivatives display a ~6 nm shift in the trans absorption peak after protein binding. Source data are provided as a source data file.