Binding study of tetracyclines to human serum albumin using difference spectrophotometry

The binding of several tetracyclines to human serum albumin was studied using difference spectrophotometry and a spectrophotometric probe, 2-(4'-hydroxybenzeneazo)benzoic acid. Difference spectra observed for the interaction between the probe and human serum albumin were similar to probe-bovine serum albumin spectra but were less intense for a given concentration of probe and did not reach saturation as quickly. Difference spectra for the tetracyclines were dependent on the characteristics of the ring substituents. More hydrophobic substituents on the D and C rings tended to give more intense difference spectra, but charge-transfer complexing may also have been involved since methacycline with a methylene group in the 6-position showed the most intense spectra of the compounds studied. Solvent perturbation, pH, and urea studies tended to confirm that something other than hydrophobic binding of the tetracyclines was involved. Drug-probe displacement studies showed that methacycline gave the greatest probe displacement followed by doxycycline, chlortetracycline, oxytetracycline, and tetracycline. This order of displacement of the anionic probe indicates that both hydrophobic and charge-transfer binding are involved. Experiments with calcium ion and ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid showed that the difference spectra obtained with the tetracyclines and human serum albumin were not the result of metallic bridge-chelate formation.