A survey was compiled of several characteristics of the intersubunit contacts in 58 oligomeric proteins, and of the intermolecular contracts in the lattice for 223 protein crystal structures. The total number of atoms in contact and the secondary structure elements involved are similar in the two types of interfaces. Crystal contact patches are frequently smaller than patches involved in oligomer interfaces. Crystal contacts result from more numerous interactions by polar residues, compared with a tendency toward nonpolar amino acids at oligomer interfaces. Arginine is the only amino acid prominent in both types of interfaces. Potentials of mean force for residue-residue contacts at both crystal and oligomer interfaces were derived from comparison of the number of observed residue-residue interactions with the number expected by mass action. They show that hydrophobic interactions at oligomer interfaces favor aromatic amino acids and methionine over aliphatic amino acids; and that crystal contacts form in such a way as to avoid inclusion of hydrophobic interactions. They also suggest that complex salt bridges with certain amino acid compositions might be important in oligomer formation. For a protein that is recalcitrant to crystallization, substitution of lysine residues with arginine or glutamine is a recommended strategy.

(-)-Epigallocatechin-3-gallate (EGCG), the major constituent of green tea has been reported to prevent many diseases by virtue of its antioxidant properties. The binding of EGCG with human serum albumin (HSA) has been investigated for the first time by using fluorescence, circular dichroism (CD), Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy, and protein-ligand docking. We observed a quenching of fluorescence of HSA in the presence of EGCG. The binding parameters were determined by a Scatchard plot and the results were found to be consistent with those obtained from a modified Stern-Volmer equation. From the thermodynamic parameters calculated according to the van't Hoff equation, the enthalpy change deltaH degrees and entropy change deltaS degrees were found to be -22.59 and 16.23 J/mol K, respectively. These values suggest that apart from an initial hydrophobic association, the complex is held together by van der Waals interactions and hydrogen bonding. Data obtained by fluorescence spectroscopy, CD, and FTIR experiments along with the docking studies suggest that EGCG binds to residues located in subdomains IIa and IIIa of HSA. Specific interactions are observed with residues Trp 214, Arg 218, Gln 221, Asn 295 and Asp 451. We have also looked at changes in the accessible surface area of the interacting residues on binding EGCG for a better understanding of the interaction.

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Curcumin is a nontoxic natural product with diverse pharmacological potencies. We report the interaction of a potent synthetic derivative of curcumin, isoxazolcurcumin (IOC) with human serum albumin (HSA) using various biophysical methods. The observed fluorescence quenching of HSA by IOC is due to a complex formation by a static quenching process with a quenching constant of the order of 10(5) M(-1). The binding affinity and the number of binding sites were obtained from a Scatchard analysis. Thermodynamics reveals that the interaction is entropy driven with predominantly hydrophobic forces. From the observed Förster-type fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET), the donor (Trp 214 in HSA) to acceptor (IOC) distance is calculated to be 3.2 nm. The conformational changes of HSA due to the interaction were investigated qualitatively from synchronous fluorescence spectra along with a quantitative estimation of the secondary structure from Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR) and circular dichroism (CD) spectroscopies. Molecular docking studies were performed to obtain information on the possible residues involved in the interaction process, and changes in accessible surface area of the interacting residues were calculated. The preferred binding site of IOC was analyzed by ligand displacement experiments with 1-anilino-8-naphthalenesulfonate (ANS) and warfarin-bound HSA.