The Interaction Mode of Groove Binding Between Quercetin and Calf Thymus DNA Based on Spectrometry and Simulation

Quercetin, a ubiquitous flavanoid, has numerous pharmacological effects, such as antioxidant and antitumor. Previous studies showed nucleic acids were the potential biological targets for antitumor medicine. For exploring the mechanism of DNA-target medicine, the interaction between quercetin and calf thymus DNA was studied based on the method of spectrometry and simulation in our study. Firstly, the interaction between quercetin and calf thymus DNA was confirmed by fluorescence spectrometry. Furthermore, circular dichroism, fluorescence polarization, competitive displacement assay, and salt concentration dependence assay were applied to search the interaction mode of quercetin-calf thymus DNA, which proved the existence of groove binding and electrostatic interaction. Meanwhile, quenching constant K_sv , binding constant K_a and the number of binding sites n was calculated, inferring that the fluorescence quenching occurred by static quenching process, and the main acting force was hydrogen bond. Finally, molecular docking was used to simulate and analyze the interaction between quercetin and calf thymus DNA.