Binding of the neuroleptic drug, gabapentin, to bovine serum albumin: Insights from experimental and computational studies

The interaction between antiepileptic drug, gabapentin (GP), and bovin serum albumin (BSA) was studied by spectroscopic and computational methods. The native fluorescence of BSA was quenched by GP. Stern-Volmer quenching constant was calculated at different temperatures which suggested a static mechanism. The association constant (Ka) was calculated from fluorescence quenching studies, which increased with temperature rising. GP competed well with warfarine for hydrophobic subdomain IIA (Sudlow's site I) on the protein. Enthalpy and entropy changes during the interaction of GP with BSA were obtained using van't Hoff plot, which showed an entropy-driven process and involvement of hydrophobic forces (ΔH>0 and ΔS>0). Synchronous fluorescence measurements of BSA solution in the presence of GP showed a considerable blue shift when Δλ=15 nm, therefore, GP interacts with tyrosine-rich sites on BSA. Optimized docked model of BSA-GP mixture confirmed the experimental results.