Binding of several anti-tumor drugs to bovine serum albumin: Fluorescence study

The interactions of mitomycin C (MMC), fluorouracil (FU), mercaptopurine (MP) and doxorubicin hydrochloride (DXR) with bovine serum albumin (BSA) were studied by spectroscopic method. Quenching of fluorescence of serum albumin by these drugs was found to be a static quenching process. The binding constants (K_A) were 9.66×10³, 2.08×10³, 8.20×10² and 7.50×10³ L mol⁻¹ for MMC-, FU-, MP- and DXR-BSA, respectively, at pH 7.4 Britton-Robinson buffer at 28 °C. The thermodynamic functions such as enthalpy change (ΔH), entropy change (ΔS) and Gibbs free-energy change (ΔG) for the reactions were also calculated according to the thermodynamic equations. The main forces in the interactions of these drugs with BSA were evaluated. It was found that the interactions of MMC and FU with BSA were exothermic processes and those of MP and DXR with BSA were endothermic. In addition, the binding sites on BSA for the four drugs were probed by the changes of binding properties of these drugs with BSA in the presence of two important site markers such as ibuprofen and indomethacin. Based on the Föster theory of non-radiation energy transfer, the binding distances between the drugs and tryptophane were calculated and they were 3.00, 1.14, 2.85, and 2.79 nm for MMC, FU, MP and DXR, respectively.