Photophysical studies of PET based acridinedione dyes with globular protein: Bovine serum albumin

Interaction of acridinedione dyes with model transport proteins, bovine serum albumin (BSA) in aqueous solution were investigated by fluorescence spectral studies. A fluorescence enhancement was observed on the addition of BSA to photoinduced electron transfer (PET) based acridinedione dyes, which posses C6H4(p-OCH3) in the 9th position of the basic acridinedione ring. On the contrary, the addition of BSA to non-PET based acridinedione dyes with methyl or phenyl substitution in the 9th position does not result in any fluorescence enhancement. The enhancement in the fluorescence intensity is attributed to the suppression of PET process through space between –OCH3 group and the acridinedione moiety is elucidated by steady state fluorescence measurements. The fluorescence anisotropy value (r) of 0.40 reveals that the motion of the dye molecule is highly constrained and is largely confined to the rigid microenvironment of the protein molecule. The binding constant (K) was found to be in the order of 6.0×103 [M]−1, which implies the existence of hydrophobic interaction between the PET based dye and BSA. Time resolved fluorescence lifetime measurements reveal that the PET based acridinedione dye preferably binds in the hydrophobic interior of BSA.