Inhibition of salicylate binding to normal plasma by extracts of uremic fluids

We previously reported that an extract of uremic plasma reduces binding of phenytoin and tryptophan by normal plasma and plasma albumin. This effect appears to reproduce the impaired binding of many drugs and several endogenous metabolites by uremic plasma. In the present study we further characterized the properties of extracts from uremic sera and body fluids using binding of salicylate as a model. Salicylate was chosen because it binds to both of the main albumin binding loci for aromatic, acidic drugs. Using a computer-assisted, least-squares, curve-fitting program, LIGAND, we found that the most satisfactory model for salicylate binding to 1:10 diluted normal plasma was a binding number (n) of 2 mol of salicylate per mole of albumin with an association constant (k) of 2.85 X 10(4) L/mol, an additional binding of 0.5 mol to other sites on albumin or to other proteins, and nonspecific binding of 21%. Addition of uremic pleural fluid extract to diluted normal plasma produced a monotonic decline in k to 0.17 X 10(4) L/mol with no change in n except possibly at the highest dose of uremic inhibitor. This pattern of competitive inhibition indicates presence of unknown ligands in the uremic extract that compete at both binding loci. More efficient extraction methods might also yield additional ligand(s) that inhibit through a noncompetitive mechanism.