Affinity spectra: a novel way for the evaluation of equilibrium binding experiments.

For equilibrium binding isotherms of radioreceptor assays, the affinity spectrum is defined as a plot of the number of binding sites against their corresponding dissociation constants. A numerical procedure for direct calculation of affinity spectra from untransformed binding data is presented and illustrated with experimental values. The advantage of the new method in comparison to non-linear regression analysis is the fact that no starting values and mathematical models have to be supplied and that statistical assessment of the results is straightforward from a detailed graphical display of a likelihood function. Affinity spectra thus show directly all information formerly obtained by means of both graphical plots and regression analysis.