In vitro investigation of the interaction between the hepatitis C virus drug sofosbuvir and human serum albumin through 1H NMR, molecular docking, and spectroscopic analyses

Sofosbuvir (SOF), an oral nucleotide inhibitor of the nonstructural protein 5B RNA of the hepatitis C virus (HCV), was approved for treating chronic HCV infection by the Food and Drug Administration in 2013. Understanding drug-protein interactions is a crucial factor in determining the pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics of a drug. In this study, the interaction between SOF and human serum albumin (HSA) was investigated using H-1 nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy, the molecular docking method, fluorescence studies, Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy, and circular dichroism (CD) spectroscopy. The analysis of saturation transfer difference (STD) and WaterLOGSY data indicated that SOF was bound to HSA, and the STD signals showed that the methyl and aromatic protons of the hydrophobic components of SOF have the most intimate contact with protein. The negative free energies (7.17 kcal mol(-1) and 6.18 kcal mol(-1)) obtained from molecular docking and fluorescence studies clearly suggested the spontaneity of the interaction of the SOF-HSA complex. STD, Water-LOGSY and fluorescence displacement experiments demonstrated that SOF was preferentially bound to site I of HSA, and this finding was supported by the docking results. In addition, synchronous and threedimensional (3D) fluorescence, FT-IR, and CD spectrocopy provided complementary information on the micro-environmental and conformational changes of HSA with the addition of SOF. The combination of 1H NMR and conventional methods provided useful information to further elucidate the binding mechanisms of antiviral drugs with HSA.