A novel vision into the binding behavior of curcumin with human serum albumin-holo transferrin complex: molecular dynamic simulation and multi-spectroscopic perspectives

In this work, we investigated the simultaneous binding of curcumin (CUR) to human serum albumin (HSA) and human-holo transferrin (HTF) in the roles of binary and ternary systems. The binding affinity and binding site of protein-protein interaction were studied by the methods of multiple spectroscopic and molecular dynamics (MD) simulation. According to the results, the measurements for binding constant of HSA-CUR, HTF-CUR and (HSA-HTF) CUR complexes were observed to be 1.51 x 10(5), 7.93 x 10(4) and 1.44 x 10(5) M-1 respectively. Thermodynamic parameters were considered to be set at three varying temperatures including 298, 303, and 308 K. In conformity to the negative values of DH0 and DS0 the significant roles of hydrogen binding and van der-Waals forces in the formation of complexes are quiet evident. The binding distance between Trp residues of HSA, HTF and HSA-HTF upon interaction with CUR, were acquired by applying the F_orster's theory of non-radioactive energy transfer and reported to be 2.04nm, 1.78 nm, and 1.86 nm, respectively. In accordance with the conductometry and Resonance light scattering (RLS) results, there were different interaction behaviors among the HSA-HTF complex and CUR in ternary system when being compared to the outcomes of binary system. The secondary structure of all three cases increased as the CUR concentration was intensified, which confirmed the inducement of proteins conformational changes through the application of circular dichroism (CD) technique. The experimental results that were acquired throughout the binding of HSA-CUR, HTF-CUR, and (HSA-HTF) CUR complexes were approved by molecular modeling.

Automated summary

Through experimental results and molecular modeling, the binding of CUR to HSA, HTF, and (HSA-HTF) was studied, revealing negative thermodynamic parameters at different temperatures, confirming the significant roles of hydrogen bonding and van der-Waals forces in complex formation and showing different interaction behaviors between HSA-HTF complex and CUR in a ternary system compared to a binary system.