Effect of ionic micellar medium on kinetics and mechanism of oxidation of bovine serum albumin: A pulse radiolysis study

Effect of protein–micelle interaction on bovine serum albumin (BSA) oxidation by trichloromethyl peroxyl radical (CCl3O2·) in anionic sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) and cationic cetyltrimethyl ammonium bromide (CTAB) micellar media has been studied using nanosecond pulse radiolysis technique. Viscosity measurement and light scattering studies have suggested that SDS and CTAB micelles produce BSA–micelle aggregates of different sizes and polydispersity. Oxidation kinetics and transients have been affected both by anionic SDS and cationic CTAB micelles but in a different manner. Tryptophanyl-CCl3O2· adduct radical to tyrosyl radical transformation in BSA has been observed in anionic SDS micelles but not in cationic CTAB micelles. Similar studies have also been done with tryptophan and tyrosine amino acids, which undergo oxidation in BSA. The study suggests that Coulombic and hydrophobic interactions between micelles and protein affect the structure of the protein to shield its functional amino acids, like tryptophan and tyrosine, to neutral oxidizing radical.