Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jan 26, 2026

Luminophore Formation in Various Conformations of Bovine Serum Albumin by Binding of GoldIII
Published on: August 31, 2018
Fluorescence Spectroscopic Investigation of Competitive Interactions between Quercetin and Aflatoxin B₁ for Binding
Hongxia Tan1, Lu Chen2, Liang Ma3,4
1College of Food Science, Southwest University, Chongqing 400715, China. tanhongxia@mail.swu.edu.cn.
Abstract:
Aflatoxin B1 (AFB₁) is a highly toxic mycotoxin found worldwide in cereals, food, and animal feeds. AFB₁ binds to human serum albumin (HSA) with high affinity. In previous experiments, it has been revealed that reducing the binding rate of AFB₁ with HSA could speed up the elimination rate of AFB₁. Therefore, we examined the ability of quercetin to compete with AFB₁ for binding HSA by fluorescence spectroscopy, synchronous spectroscopy, ultrafiltration studies, etc. It was shown that AFB₁ and quercetin bind to HSA in the same Sudlow site Ӏ (subdomain IIA), and the binding constant (Ka) of the quercetin-HSA complex is significantly stronger than the complex of AFB₁-HSA. Our data in this experiment showed that quercetin is able to remove the AFB₁ from HSA and reduce its bound fraction. This exploratory work may be of significance for studies in the future regarding decreasing its bound fraction and then increasing its elimination rate for detoxification. This exploratory study may initiate future epidemiological research designs to obtain further in vivo evidence of the long-term (potential protective) effects of competing substances on human patients.
Related Concept Videos
Competition
The Equilibrium Binding Constant and Binding Strength
The Equilibrium Binding Constant and Binding Strength
Factors Affecting Protein-Drug Binding: Drug Interactions
Displacement interactions can have varying outcomes, ranging from toxicity to virtually...
Ligand Binding Sites
Protein-ligand interactions are quite specific; even though numerous potential ligands surround a cellular protein at any given time, only a particular ligand can bind to that protein. Moreover, a ligand binds only to a dedicated area on the surface of the protein, known as the...
Conserved Binding Sites
Binding sites are often located in large pockets, and if their location on a protein’s surface is unknown, it can be predicted using various approaches. The energetic method computationally...

