Issue 59, 2015

Unraveling the coptisine–ctDNA binding mechanism by multispectroscopic, electrochemical and molecular docking methods

Abstract

Coptisine, an isoquinoline alkaloid, is an important medicinal herbal extract with diverse pharmacological and biological activities. Based on these considerations, an explorative study of the interaction of coptisine with calf thymus DNA (ctDNA) was conducted using multispectroscopic, electrochemical and molecular modeling techniques under simulative physiological conditions. Absorption spectra and iodide quenching experiments indicated that intercalation was the main DNA binding mode for coptisine. Fluorescence studies revealed that this interaction process is predominantly a dynamic process. This was further confirmed in a difference absorption spectrum and in electrochemical studies. The apparent activation energy, Ea, remained largely constant at different temperatures. DNA chemical denaturation was used to further investigate the interaction and provided further support for the intercalation. Furthermore, CD spectroscopy confirmed that coptisine not only interacted with the ctDNA, but it also perturbed ctDNA structure. In addition to experimental approaches, molecular modeling was used as a tool to verify and expand the experimental outcomes.

Graphical abstract: Unraveling the coptisine–ctDNA binding mechanism by multispectroscopic, electrochemical and molecular docking methods

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
11 May 2015
Accepted
21 May 2015
First published
21 May 2015

RSC Adv., 2015,5, 47367-47376

Author version available

Unraveling the coptisine–ctDNA binding mechanism by multispectroscopic, electrochemical and molecular docking methods

R. Mi, X. Bai, B. Tu and Y. Hu, RSC Adv., 2015, 5, 47367 DOI: 10.1039/C5RA08790B

To request permission to reproduce material from this article, please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

If you are an author contributing to an RSC publication, you do not need to request permission provided correct acknowledgement is given.

If you are the author of this article, you do not need to request permission to reproduce figures and diagrams provided correct acknowledgement is given. If you want to reproduce the whole article in a third-party publication (excluding your thesis/dissertation for which permission is not required) please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

Read more about how to correctly acknowledge RSC content.

Social activity

Spotlight

Advertisements