Investigation on the Binding Behavior of Ellagic Acid to Human Serum Albumin in Aqueous Solution

Abstract

Ellagic acid (EA), one of the polyphenols in fruits and nuts, has pharmacological activity. To explore binding behavior of EA to protein, human serum albumin (HSA) was chosen and investigated by fluorescence spectroscopy, Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy and molecular modeling in aqueous solution. Fluorescence titration results indicated that EA effectively quenched the intrinsic fluorescence of HSA by static quenching and the binding process was spontaneous. According to the Scatchard equation, there was only one class of binding sites can bind to HSA, the binding constants at three different temperatures (298, 310 and 318 K) were 8.47 × 104, 7.39 × 104 and 6.00 × 104, respectively. It was found by FT-IR spectra that EA altered HSA secondary structure. Thermodynamic analysis showed that hydrophobic interaction and hydrogen bonds played an important role in stabilizing EA–HSA complex. A molecular docking study suggested that the HSA residues for EA binding located in sub-domain IIA.