Study on the interaction between theasinesin and human serum albumin by fluorescence spectroscopy

The binding properties on theasinesin to human serum albumin (HSA) have been studied for the first time using fluorescence spectroscopy in combination with UV–vis absorbance spectroscopy. The results showed that theasinesin strongly quenched the intrinsic fluorescence of HSA through a static quenching procedure, and non-radiation energy transfer happened within molecules. The number of binding site was 1, and the efficiency of Förster energy transfer provided a distance of 4.64 nm between tryptophan and theasinesin binding site. At 298, 310 and 323 K, the quenching constants of HSA–theasinesin system were 2.55×10³, 2.16×10³ and 1.75×10³ mol L⁻¹. ΔH^θ, ΔS^θ and ΔG^θ were obtained based on the quenching constants and thermodynamic theory (ΔH^θ<0, ΔS^θ>0 and ΔG^θ<0). These results indicated that hydrophobic and electrostatic interactions are the mainly binding forces in the theasinesin–HSA system. In addition, the results obtained from synchronous fluorescence spectra showed that the binding of theasinesin with HSA could induce conformational changes in HSA.