Biological Interaction of Molybdenocene Dichloride with Bovine Serum Albumin Using Fluorescence Spectroscopy

Abstract

Bioinorganic topics are ubiquitous in the inorganic chemistry curriculum; however, experiments to enhance understanding of related topics are scarce. In this proposed laboratory, upper undergraduate students assess the biological interaction of molybdenocene dichloride (Cp2MoCl2) with bovine serum albumin (BSA) by fluorescence spectroscopy. Specifically, learners study the quenching mechanism by performing a binding titration of a bovine serum albumin (BSA) solution with molybdenocene dichloride at physiological pH at three temperatures to determine the biomolecular quenching constant as defined in the Stern–Volmer equation. The temperature dependency of the quenching constant allows estimation of thermodynamic parameters which in turn permits an assessment of the nature of the intermolecular interactions involved. This educational activity promotes graph interpretation and integration of concepts such as metallocene–protein interaction, fluorescence quenching, Gibbs energy, entropy, and enthalpy, where s...