Accurately predicting binding affinity constant (K-A) is highly required to determine the binding energetics of the driving forces in drug-DNA interactions. Recently, PD153035, brominated anilinoquinazoline, has been reported to be not only a highly selective inhibitor of epidermal growth factor receptor but also a DNA intercalator. Here, we use a dual-trap optical tweezers to determining K-A for PD153035, where K-A is determined from the changes in B-form contour length (L) of PD153035-DNA complex. Here, L is fitted using a modified wormlike chain model. We found that a noticeable increment in L in 1 mM sodium cacodylate was exhibited. Furthermore, our results showed that K-A = 1.18(+/-0.09) x 10(4) (1/M) at 23 +/- 0.5 degrees C and the minimum distance between adjacent bound PD153035 approximate to 11 bp. We anticipate that by using this approach we can determine the complete thermodynamic profiles due to the presence of DNA intercalators. (C) 2010 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.