Synthesis of imidazole derivatives and the spectral characterization of the binding properties towards human serum albumin

•We synthesized a series of imidazole derivatives as ligands in this work.•The binding affinity of imidazole derivatives with HSA was strong.•HSA structural changes occurred due to these interactions.

Small molecular drugs that can combine with target proteins specifically, and then block relative signal pathway, finally obtain the purpose of treatment. For this reason, the synthesis of novel imidazole derivatives was described and this study explored the details of imidazole derivatives binding to human serum albumin (HSA). The data of steady-state and time-resolved fluorescence showed that the conjugation of imidazole derivatives with HSA yielded quenching by a static mechanism. Meanwhile, the number of binding sites, the binding constants, and the thermodynamic parameters were also measured; the raw data indicated that imidazole derivatives could spontaneously bind with HSA through hydrophobic interactions and hydrogen bonds which agreed well with the results from the molecular modeling study. Competitive binding experiments confirmed the location of binding. Furthermore, alteration of the secondary structure of HSA in the presence of the imidazole derivatives was tested.

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