Molecular modeling and multi‐spectroscopic approaches to study the interaction between antibacterial drug and human immunoglobulin G

Mechanistic and conformational studies on the interaction of sulfamethoxazole (SMX) with human immunoglobulin G (HIgG) were performed by molecular modeling and multi‐spectroscopic methods. The interaction mechanism was firstly predicted through molecular modeling that confirmed the interaction between SMX and HIgG. The binding parameters and thermodynamic parameters at different temperatures had been calculated according to the Stern?Volmer, Scatchard, Sips and Van ’t Hoff equations, respectively. Experimental results showed that the fluorescence intensity of HIgG was quenched by the gradual addition of SMX. The binding constants of SMX with HIgG decreased with the increase of temperature, which meant that the quenching mechanism was a static quenching. Meanwhile, the results also confirmed that there was one independent class of binding site on HIgG for SMX during their interaction. The thermodynamic parameters of the reaction, namely standard enthalpy ΔH⁰ and entropy ΔS⁰, had been calculated to be ?14.69 kJ·mol^?1 and 22.99 J·mol^?1·K^?1, respectively, which suggested that the electrostatic and hydrophobic interactions were the predominant intermolecular forces in stabilizing the SMX?HIgG complex. Furthermore, experimental results obtained from three‐dimensional fluorescence spectroscopy, UV?vis absorption spectroscopy and circular dichroism (CD) spectroscopy confirmed that the conformational structure of HIgG was altered in the presence of SMX. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.