Spectrophotometric study of the interaction between chlorotetracycline and bovine serum albumin using Eosin Y as site marker with the aid of chemometrics

Interaction of chlorotetracycline (CTC) with bovine serum albumin (BSA) was investigated under simulated physiological conditions by spectroscopy with the aid of multivariate curve resolution-alternating least squares (MCR-ALS). Eosin Y was selected as an alternative site I marker on the BSA to study the above molecular interaction. The binding of Eosin Y and CTC to BSA showed that CTC was displaced from CTC–BSA complex by Eosin Y, and Eosin Y–BSA complex was formed. However, the recorded fluorescence spectra of Eosin Y and Eosin Y–BSA overlapped and MCR-ALS was applied to resolve the two-way fluorescence spectra. From the resolved equilibrium concentration profiles, it was observed that Eosin Y competed with CTC in the binding process with BSA; it was also shown that the binding site of CTC on BSA was site I, and this was further confirmed by the fluorescence polarization method. Compared with some common site I markers for BSA, the fluorescence and UV–vis spectral shapes of the Eosin Y–BSA complex were quite different from that of Eosin Y, and this feature facilitated the investigation of the small molecule–BSA interaction.