Probing the binding of phenolic aldehyde vanillin with bovine serum albumin: Evidence from spectroscopic and docking approach

The interactions of bovine serum albumin (BSA) with vanillin (VAN) were studied using UV-vis absorption, fluorescence, synchronous fluorescence, three dimensional fluorescence spectroscopy (3D), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), circular dichroism (CD), and molecular docking techniques. The results revealed that VAN causes the static quenching of BSA by forming BSA-VAN complex. The thermodynamic parameters obtained using isothermal titration calorimetry (ITC) showed that the interaction between BSA and VAN is spontaneous and hydrogen bonding, van der Waals forces are mainly involved in stabilizing the complex. The distance between the donor and the acceptor was analyzed using fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET) which showed Forster distance of 2.58 nm. Molecular docking technique was applied to study the modes of interaction between BSA-VAN system and it was found that VAN bound to the sub-domain IIA of BSA. Structural analysis using 3D, synchronous fluorescence FTIR, and CD showed that upon binding of VAN, BSA exhibits small micro-environmental changes around tryptophan amino acid residue.