Fluorescence spectrometric studies on the binding of puerarin to human serum albumin using warfarin, ibuprofen and digitoxin as site markers with the aid of chemometrics

The interaction of puerarin with human serum albumin (HSA) in pH 7.4 Tris–HCl buffer has been investigated by fluorescence, Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) and circular dichroism (CD) spectroscopy. The results revealed the presence of static type of quenching mechanism in the binding of puerarin to HSA. The association constants (Ka) between puerarin and HSA were obtained according to Modified Stern–Volmer equation. The calculated thermodynamic parameters indicated that the binding of puerarin to HSA was driven mainly by hydrophobic interaction. The competitive experiments of site markers suggested that the binding site of puerarin to HSA was located in the region of subdomain IIA (sudlow site I). Further, a chemometrics approach, parallel factor analysis (PARAFAC), was applied to resolve the measured three-way synchronous fluorescence spectra data of the competitive interaction between puerarin and warfarin with HSA. The concentration information for the three reaction components, warfarin, puerarin and puerarin−HSA, in the system at equilibrium was obtained simultaneously. The PARAFAC analysis indicated that puerarin in the puerarin–HSA complex was displaced by warfarin, which confirmed the binding site of puerarin to HSA was located in site I. Moreover, the results of CD and FT-IR spectra demonstrated that the secondary structure of HSA was changed in the presence of puerarin.