Proposed binding mechanism of galbanic acid extracted from Ferula assa-foetida to DNA

Recently, galbanic acid (GA), a sesquiterpenoid coumarin, has been introduced as an apoptotic and geno/cytotoxicity agent. In the present study, GA has been extracted from Ferula assa-foetida, a native medicinal plant in Iran, and characterized by ¹H NMR, mass spectroscopy. Additionally, spectroscopic studies have been performed in order to investigate its DNA-interaction mode. The electrochemical behavior of GA has been studied by cyclic voltammetry (CV) in various scan rates. In neutral media (pH=7.3) one irreversible cathodic peak was obtained at -1.46 V, while in higher scan rates an irreversible one was determined at -1.67 V. According to the voltametric data GA can be easily reduced by 2e^-/2H⁺ mechanism at hanging mercury drop electrode (HMDE). The interaction of GA with ct-DNA was evaluated by CV, differential pulse voltammetry (DPV), enhancement fluorescence, UV-Vis, FT-IR spectroscopy and molecular docking. The molecular docking study shows that the GA interacts to DNA on partial intercalation mode via DNA groove binding and forms a complex by van der Waals and electroastatic interactions. In addition, the thermodynamic parameters of GA-DNA complex were investigated with ΔH°, ΔS° and ΔG° values of 15.81KJmol^-1, 133.95Jmol^-1 and -23.10KJmol^-1, respectively. All data revealed that the GA is binding to DNA by van der Waals and electrostatic interactions through the partial intercalations from the DNA's grooves.