Spectroscopic Studies on the Interaction of N-alkyl Phenothiazines with Bovine Serum Albumin

Binding of N-Alkyl phenothiazines (NAP) to bovine serum albumin (BSA) was studied by spectroscopic methods.It was found that the phenothiazine ring common to all drugs makes major contribution to interaction. However, the nature of alkylamino group at position 10 influences the protein binding significantly. Stern-Volmer plots indicated the presence of static component in the quenching mechanism. The high magnitude of rate constant of quenching indicated that the process of energy transfer occurs by intermolecular interaction and thus the drug-binding site is in close proximity to tryptophan residues of BSA. Binding studies in presence of hydrophobic probe, 8-anilino-1-naphthalein-sulphonic acid showed that there is hydrophobic interaction between drug and the probe and they do not share common sites in BSA. Thermodynamic parameters obtained from data at different temperatures showed that the binding of NAP to BSA predominantly involve hydrophobic forces. The effects of some cations and anions common ions were investigated on NAP-BSA interactions. The CD spectrum of BSA in presence of drug showedthat binding of drug leads to change in the helicity of the protein.