The effect of aspirin-HSA complexation on the protein secondary structure

This study was designed to determine the secondary structure of human serum albumin (HSA) in the presence of aspirin in H2O and D2O solutions at physiological pH, using aspirin concentrations of 0.0001-5 mM with final protein concentration of 2% w/v. UV-vis spectra and Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) difference spectroscopy with its self-deconvolution, second derivative resolution enhancement, and curve-fitting procedures were applied to characterize the drug binding mode, the binding constant, and the protein secondary structure in the aspirin-HSA complexes. Spectroscopic evidence showed that no aspirin-protein interaction occurs at very low drug concentration (0.0001 mM), whereas at higher drug contents (0.001-0.1 mM) the aspirin anion binding (H-bonding) is mainly through the ε-amino NH3+ group with overall binding constant of K = 1.4 × 104 M-1. At high drug concentrations (1-5 mM), acetylation of Lys-199 was observed. Aspirin binding results in protein secondary structural changes from that of the α-helix 55% (free HSA) to 49%, β-sheet 22% (free HSA) to 31%, β-anti 12% (free HSA) to 4% and turn 11% (free HSA) to 16% in the aspirin-HSA complexes..Key words: aspirin, protein, drug, binding mode, binding constant secondary structure, FTIR spectroscopy.