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Interfacial complexes between a protein and lipophilic ions at an oil-water interface
Rune A Hartvig1, Manuel A Méndez, Marco van de Weert
1Department of Pharmaceutics and Analytical Chemistry, Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of Copenhagen, Universitetsparken 2, DK-2100 Copenhagen, Denmark.
Abstract:
The interaction between an intact protein and two lipophilic ions at an oil-water interface has been investigated using cyclic voltammetry, impedance based techniques and a newly developed method in which the biphasic oil-water system is analyzed by biphasic electrospray ionization mass spectrometry (BESI-MS), using a dual-channel electrospray emitter. It is found that the protein forms interfacial complexes with the lipophilic ions and that it specifically requires the presence of the oil-water interface to be formed under the experimental conditions. Furthermore, impedance based techniques and BESI-MS with a common ion to polarize the interface indicated that the Galvani potential difference across the oil-water interface significantly influences the interfacial complexation degree. The ability to investigate protein-ligand complexes formed at polarized liquid-liquid interfaces is thus a new analytical method for assessing potential dependent interfacial complexation using a structure elucidating detection principle.
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