Biamphiphilic Ionic Liquid Induced Folding Alterations in the Structure of Bovine Serum Albumin in Aqueous Medium

3-Methyl-1-octylimidazolium dodecylsulfate, [C(8)mim][C12OSO3], a vesicle forming biamphiphilic ionic liquid (BAIL) (J. Phys. Chem. B 2012, 116, 14363-14374), has been found to induce significant folding alterations in the structure of bovine serum albumin (BSA) in the aqueous medium at pH 7.0. Such alterations have been investigated in detail using various physicochemical and spectroscopic techniques. Different concentration regimes (monomeric, shared aggregation, and post-vesicular) of [C(8)mim][C12OSO3]-BSA interactions have been defined through adsorption and binding isotherms using tensiometry and isothermal titration calorimetry (ITC). Fluorimetry, circular dichroism (CD), and dynamic light scattering (DLS) measurements have shown that [C(8)mim][C12OSO3] induces a small unfolding of BSA in the monomeric regime at low concentration (designated as C-f), which is followed by a refolding up to critical aggregation concentration (CAC) (designated as C-1). Above C-1, i.e., in the shared aggregation concentration regime, again a small unfolding of BSA was observed up to critical vesicular concentration (CVC) (designated as C-2). In the vesicular and post-vesicular regimes, the BSA remained stable against folding alterations. The kinetic stability of BSA in the vesicular concentration regimes was studied for a month using turbidimetry. It has been found that [C(8)mim][C12OSO3] stabilizes BSA against the aggregation which is the major cause of protein destabilization. The present study gives insights for the design of surface active ILs for protein stabilization as a potential replacement for the mixed micelles of conventional surfactants used in detergent industries for enzyme stabilization and as an artificial chaperone.