Elucidation of the association of potential chemotherapeutic alkaloid chelerythrine with bovine hemoglobin by experimental probing and molecular docking simulation

November 13, 2019

Title

Elucidation of the association of potential chemotherapeutic alkaloid chelerythrine with bovine hemoglobin by experimental probing and molecular docking simulation

Author

Sutanwi Bhuiya, Susmita Chowdhury, Lucy Haque, Suman Das

Year

2019

Journal

International Journal of Biological Macromolecules

Abstract

Chelerythrine (CHL) is a pharmacologically important molecule that appears in positively charged iminium and neutral alkanolamine form on varying the pH. Association of bovine hemoglobin (BHb) with iminium and alkanolamine forms of CHL is explored employing several spectroscopic and theoretical tools. Our results revealed that iminium form of CHL shows greater binding affinity than the neutral alkanolamine form, with nearly one binding site on the protein for both forms. Thermodynamic data showed that the iminium binding to BHb was characterized by negative enthalpy and positive entropy changes while the association of the alkanolamine CHL was accompanied with both positive enthalpy and entropy changes. Both forms of CHL have been found to quench the intrinsic fluorescence of BHb. From Förster's resonance energy transfer (FRET) studies, the binding distance between the energy acceptor (CHL) and donor (β–Trp 37 of BHb) was found to be optimum for fluorescence quenching to occur. The conformational transformation of BHb induced by CHL complexation showed greater unfolding of the protein architecture for the iminium interaction from CD spectroscopy. Molecular docking study revealed that both iminium and alkanolamine form of CHL reside near β–Trp 37 at the α1β2 interface of BHb.

Instrument

J-815

Keywords

Circular dichroism, Ligand binding, Secondary structure, Protein folding, Thermodynamics, Biochemistry