Investigation of binding behaviour of procainamide hydrochloride with human serum albumin using synchronous,3D fluorescence and circular dichroism

Interaction of procainamide hydrochloride（PAH） with human serum albumin（HSA） is of great significance in understanding the pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic mechanisms of the drug. Multi-spectroscopic techniques were used to investigate the binding mode of PAH to HSA and results revealed the presence of static type of quenching mechanism. The number of binding sites, binding constants and thermodynamic parameters were calculated. The results showed a spontaneous binding of PAH to HSA and hydrophobic interactions played a major role. In addition, the distance between PAH and the Trp–214 was estimated employing the F？rster＇s theory. Site marker competitive experiments indicated that the binding of PAH to HSA primarily took place in subdomain IIA（Sudlow＇s site I）. The influence of interference of some common metal ions on the binding of PAH to HSA was studied. Synchronous fluorescence spectra（SFS）, 3D fluorescence spectra and circular dichroism（CD） results indicated the conformational changes in the structure of HSA.

Development of Highly Specific Enzyme Immunoassay for Monitoring Serum Digitoxin Level in Patients

We previously developed radioimmunoassays (RIAs) for digitoxin and digoxin using antisera raised against digitoxin 3’-hemisuccinate-bovine serum albumin and digoxin 3’-hemisuccinate-bovine serum albumin conjugates, respectively. Very recently, we converted the RIA for digoxin to an enzyme immunoassay (EIA) system. Here, we aimed to convert the RIA for digitoxin to an EIA suitable for measuring serum digitoxin level in patients, using digitoxin 3’-hemisuccinate-β-D-galactosidase as an enzyme-labeled antigen. The developed EIA showed a quantification range of 1 to 70 ng/mL and exhibited high specificity for digitoxin, with low cross-reactivity to digitoxin metabolites. Compared with a commercial anti-digitoxin antiserum clinically used to monitor serum digitoxin level in patients, our antiserum showed much higher specificity for intact digitoxin. Intra- and inter-assay variations were less than 10.0% and 8.5%, respectively. Recovery was within the range of 93.7% - 107.5%. Mean digitoxin concentrations measured in serum samples (n = 26) from digitoxin-treated patients by EIA using our new antiserum and the commercial anti-digitoxin antiserum were 11.0 and 13.8 ng/mL, respectively. The present EIA, which is superior to RIA in terms of convenience and disposal of waste materials, is expected to be practically useful for clinical monitoring of intact digitoxin in serum.

Surface plasmon resonance sensor chips for the recognition of bovine serum albumin via electropolymerized molecularly imprinted polymers

In this paper, a surface plasmon resonance （SPR） sensor chip for detection of bovine serum album （BSA） was prepared by electropolymerization of 3-aminophenylboronic acid （3-APBA） based on molecularly imprinted polymer （MIP） technique. The surface morphology of MIP and non-imprinted （NIP） films were characterized by scanning electroscopy （SEM）. SEM images exhibited nanoscale cavities formed on the MIP films surface homogeneously due to the removal of BSA templates. The effects of pH, ion strength of rebinding BSA, the specific binding and selective recognition were studied for MIP films. Results indicated that the BSA-imprinted films exhibited a good adsorption of template protein （0.02-0.8 mg/mL） in 0.05 mol/L sodium phosphate buffer at pH 5.0 with the limit of detection （LOD） of 0.02 mg/mL.