title: Binding of the active metabolite of chloral hydrate, 2,2,2-trichloroethanol, to serum albumin demonstrated using tryptophan fluorescence quenching.
abstract: Chloral hydrate, a sedative/hypnotic agent widely used in the pediatric population, is converted to the active metabolite 2,2,2-trichloroethanol (TCE) in the liver. Tryptophan fluorescence quenching has been used previously to show that halothane and chloroform bind saturably to serum albumin, and a similar approach is used here to demonstrate that TCE also binds to albumin. TCE quenches the steady-state tryptophan fluorescence of bovine serum albumin (BSA) in a concentration-dependent, saturable manner with a K(D) = 3.3 +/- 0.3 mmol/l. Unlike halothane and chloroform, however, TCE also elicits a concentration-dependent blue-shift in the fluorescence emission spectrum of BSA and human serum albumin. This indicates that TCE induces a conformational change in the protein, causing the tryptophan to experience a change in its chemical environment, thus shifting the peak of the emission spectrum. Circular dichroism spectroscopy revealed a decrease in the alpha-helical content of BSA from 65.8 +/- 0.4 to 62.9 +/- 0.6% when TCE was present at a concentration of 30 mmol/l, providing further evidence for a conformational change. There is evidence that TCE potentiates the action of ligand-gated ion channels such as the GABA(A) and 5-HT(3) receptors, and the present results suggest that anesthetic alcohols may act by binding to these proteins and inducing structural changes that may in turn alter protein function.
authors.affiliation: Department of Anesthesia, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pa. 19104, USA.
authors.forename: Ken
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Solt
authors.forename: Jonas S
authors.initials: JS
authors.lastname: Johansson
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002417:Cattle; D002697:Chloral Hydrate / Q000378:metabolism*; D002942:Circular Dichroism; D005023:Ethylene Chlorohydrin / Q000031:analogs & derivatives* / Q000378:metabolism*; D006801:Humans; D006993:Hypnotics and Sedatives / Q000378:metabolism*; D011485:Protein Binding; D011487:Protein Conformation; D012709:Serum Albumin / Q000378:metabolism*; D013050:Spectrometry, Fluorescence; D014364:Tryptophan
chemical_list: D006993:Hypnotics and Sedatives; D012709:Serum Albumin; D002697:Chloral Hydrate; D005023:Ethylene Chlorohydrin; D014364:Tryptophan; C005849:2,2,2-trichloroethanol