Abstract
Protein stabilizing potential of honey was studied on a model protein, bovine serum albumin (BSA), using extrinsic fluorescence of fluorescein isothiocyanate (FITC) as the probe. BSA was labelled with FITC using chemical coupling, and urea and thermal denaturation studies were performed on FITC-labelled BSA (FITC-BSA) both in the absence and presence of 10% and 20% (w/v) honey using FITC fluorescence at 522 nm upon excitation at 495 nm. There was an increase in the FITC fluorescence intensity upon increasing urea concentration or temperature, suggesting protein denaturation. The results from urea and thermal denaturation studies showed increased stability of protein in the presence of honey as reflected from the shift in the transition curve along with the start point and the midpoint of the transition towards higher urea concentration/temperature. Furthermore, the increase in ΔG D H2O and ΔG D 25°C in presence of honey also suggested protein stabilization.
Highlights
Protein stability has been regarded as a critical issue in biotechnology due to increasing demands of proteins in various applications, such as industrial enzymes, analytical tools, therapeutics agents, clinical diagnostic materials, and so forth [1,2,3]
In view of the unsuitability of intrinsic fluorescence probe to study protein stabilization in the presence of honey, fluorescein isothiocyanate (FITC) was chosen as an extrinsic fluorescence probe for such studies as both the excitation and emission wavelengths were different from the protein’s intrinsic fluorescence excitation and emission wavelengths
The model protein, bovine serum albumin (BSA), was labelled with FITC following the procedure described in Section 2 and used in the urea and thermal denaturation studies both in the absence and presence of 10% and 20% (w/v) honey
Summary
Protein stability has been regarded as a critical issue in biotechnology due to increasing demands of proteins in various applications, such as industrial enzymes, analytical tools, therapeutics agents, clinical diagnostic materials, and so forth [1,2,3]. Fluorescein isothiocyanate (FITC) fluorescence has been used to study protein stabilization against urea and thermal denaturations in the presence of honey using FITC fluorescence spectroscopic signal after labelling the model protein, bovine serum albumin (BSA), with FITC.
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