Tetrakis(4-sulfonatophenyl)porphyrin fluorescence as reporter of human serum albumin structural changes induced by guanidine hydrochloride

The interaction of the drug carrier protein human serum albumin (HSA) with the ionic, free base porphyrin tetrakis(4-sulfonatophenyl)porphyrin (TSPP) was investigated under chemical denaturation conditions using guanidine hydrochloride (Gdn-HCl) in aqueous solution at pH 7 and 2.5. Protein stability was studied by fluorescence spectroscopy using intrinsic tryptophan fluorescence, whereas far-UV circular dichroism gave information regarding conformational changes. Steady-state and time-resolved fluorescence as well as extinction and induced visible CD of TSPP were also monitored in the presence of the denaturant.The addition of 1.0 M Gdn-HCl inhibited the FRET process between the sole tryptophan residue of HSA and the porphyrin as inferred by an increase in the intrinsic fluorescence of the former together with a drop in the fluorescence of the latter. Simultaneously, an induced bisignate CD band was detected in the Soret region of TSPP extinction following the changes in the monomer ? aggregate equilibrium of TSPP. The features in the extinction spectra pointed to the formation of J-aggregates at pH = 2.5 and were confirmed by fluorescence lifetime measurements. At pH = 7, no TSPP dimers were detected in the absence of the protein or in the presence of native HSA. However, H-dimers or higher aggregates of TSPP associated to HSA were induced at concentrations of Gdn-HCl below 2 M.The main unfolding transition probed by HSA intrinsic fluorescence took place between 2 and 3 M Gdn-HCl at pH = 7, whereas at pH = 2.5 it was detected only above 2.8 M Gdn-HCl, coinciding with TSPP release into solution which occurs at high denaturant concentration for both pH studied. The results suggest that the chemical unfolding of HSA is a multistep process. The free base porphyrin contributes to an increase in the protein stability, particularly important under acidic conditions, where the protein is known to be in an expanded form in the absence of TSPP.The analysis of TSPP fluorescence fluctuations in the autocorrelation functions obtained using fluorescence correlation spectroscopy (FCS) in the presence of HSA at different denaturant concentrations showed that the porphyrin only interacts with the native form of the protein.Both fluorescence and circular dichroism data confirmed that in the noncovalent complex HSA–TSPP the free base porphyrin can act as a reporter of the protein structural changes induced either by pH or chemical denaturation.