Review on the delivery of steroids by carrier proteins

Due to the poor solubility of steroids in aqueous solution, delivery of these biomaterials is of major biomedical importance. We have reviewed the conjugation of testosterone and it aliphatic dimer and aromatic dimer with several carrier proteins, human serum albumin (HSA), bovine serum albumin (BSA) and milk beta-lactoglobulin (b-LG) in aqueous solution at physiological pH. The results of multiple spectroscopic methods, transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and molecular modeling were compared here. Steroid-protein bindings are via hydrophilic and H-bonding contacts. HSA forms more stable conjugate than BSA and b-LG. The stability of steroid-protein conjugates is testosterone>dimer-aromatic>dimer-aliphatic. Encapsulation of steroids by protein is shown by TEM images. Modeling showed the presence of H-bonding, which stabilized testosterone-protein complexes with the free binding energy of -12.95 for HSA and -11.55 for BSA and -8.92kcal/mol for b-LG conjugates. Steroid conjugation induced major perturbations of serum protein conformations. Serum proteins can transport steroids to the target molecules.