Mechanism of interaction of vincristine sulphate and rifampicin with bovine serum albumin: A spectroscopic study

Abstract

The mechanism of interaction of vincristine sulphate (VS) and rifampicin (RF) with bovine serum albumin (BSA) has been studied by quenching of BSA fluorescence by RF/VS. The Stern-Volmer plot indicates the presence of a static component in the quenching mechanism. Results also show that both the tryptophan residues of BSA are accessible to VS and RF. The high magnitude of rate constant of quenching indicates that the process of energy transfer occurs by intermolecular interaction and VS/RF-binding site is in close proximity to the tryptophan residues of BSA. Binding studies in the presence of a hydrophobic probe, 8-anilino-1-naphthalene-sulphonic acid sodium salt (ANS) indicate that the VS and RF compete with ANS for hydrophobic sites on the surface of BSA. Small decreases in critical micellar concentrations (CMC) of anionic surfactants in presence of VS/ RF show that the ionic character of VS/RF also contributes to binding. The temperature dependence of the association constant is used to estimate the values of the thermodynamic parameters involved in the interaction of VS/RF with BSA and the results indicate that hydrophobic forces play a significant role in the binding. Circular dichroism studies reveal that the change in helicity of BSA are due to binding of VS/RF to BSA.