Issue 61, 2015

Drug–tubulin interactions interrogated by transient absorption spectroscopy

Abstract

Colchicine (COL) is a bioactive molecule with antitumor properties. When COL binds to tubulin (TU), it inhibits microtubule assembly dynamics. We have investigated COL–TU interactions using laser flash photolysis (LFP) technique and performing fully flexible molecular dynamics simulations. Excitation of COL at 355 nm in aqueous medium did not lead to any transient absorption spectrum. By contrast, in the presence of TU a transient peaking at λmax ca. 420 nm was registered and assigned as triplet excited COL complexed with TU (3COL*@TU). In aerated medium, the lifetime was τ ca. 160 μs and the quantum yield was 0.138. Likewise, when the bicyclic COL analog MTC was submitted to LFP in the presence of TU, 3MTC@TU* was detected with a lifetime of ca. 62 μs and a quantum yield of 0.296, Aqueous solutions of MTC did not produce any signal in the microsecond timescale. The triplet energy of MTC was obtained by means of emission measurements and found to be ca. 200 kJ mol−1, a value that matches with that previously reported for COL (188 kJ mol−1). Molecular dynamic simulations, both with the ground and triplet excited state, reveal a strong interaction between COL and TU to give stabilized complexes with restricted mobility inside the protein binding site. These results demonstrate that LFP is a useful methodology to study the binding of COL derivatives to TU and open a new way to evaluate the interactions of non-fluorescent anticancer drugs with this protein.

Graphical abstract: Drug–tubulin interactions interrogated by transient absorption spectroscopy

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
30 Mar 2015
Accepted
27 May 2015
First published
27 May 2015

RSC Adv., 2015,5, 49451-49458

Author version available

Drug–tubulin interactions interrogated by transient absorption spectroscopy

F. Boscá, G. Sastre, J. M. Andreu, D. Jornet, R. Tormos and M. A. Miranda, RSC Adv., 2015, 5, 49451 DOI: 10.1039/C5RA05636E

To request permission to reproduce material from this article, please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

If you are an author contributing to an RSC publication, you do not need to request permission provided correct acknowledgement is given.

If you are the author of this article, you do not need to request permission to reproduce figures and diagrams provided correct acknowledgement is given. If you want to reproduce the whole article in a third-party publication (excluding your thesis/dissertation for which permission is not required) please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

Read more about how to correctly acknowledge RSC content.

Social activity

Spotlight

Advertisements