High-precision, automated integration of multiple isothermal titration calorimetric thermograms: New features of NITPIC

Isothermal titration calorimetry (ITC) has become a standard and widely available tool to measure the thermodynamic parameters of macromolecular associations. Modern applications of the method, including global analysis and drug screening, require the acquisition of multiple sets of data; sometimes these data sets number in the hundreds. Therefore, there is a need for quick, precise, and automated means to process the data, particularly at the first step of data analysis, which is commonly the integration of the raw data to yield an interpretable isotherm. Herein, we describe enhancements to an algorithm that previously has been shown to provide an automated, unbiased, and high-precision means to integrate ITC data. These improvements allow for the speedy and precise serial integration of an unlimited number of ITC data sets, and they have been implemented in the freeware program NITPIC, version 1.1.0. We present a comprehensive comparison of the performance of this software against an older version of NITPIC and a current version of Origin, which is commonly used for integration. The new methods recapitulate the excellent performance of the previous versions of NITPIC while speeding it up substantially, and their precision is significantly better than that of Origin. This new version of NITPIC is therefore well suited to the serial integration of many ITC data sets. (C) 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.