Studies on the interaction of diacetylcurcumin with calf thymus-DNA

Ongoing research on curcumin and its structural derivatives are a subject of growing interest because of their demonstrated biological properties. Diacetylcurcumin (DAC), a synthetic derivative of natural non-toxic curcumin has been shown to affect a host of activities ranging from wound healing to life threatening diseases like AIDS, cancer etc. The interaction of diacetylcurcumin (DAC) with calf thymus-DNA (ct-DNA) has been investigated by spectroscopic and viscometric techniques. The fluorescence intensity of DAC was quenched by ct-DNA. The mean binding constant obtained from the spectroscopic techniques was 3.97 ± 0.31 × 105 M−1. Circular dichroism studies did not reveal any unwinding of the DNA helix on interaction with DAC, implying no conformational changes. The binding mode was analyzed by competitive binding between ethidium bromide (EB) and DAC for ct-DNA and also by viscometric studies. DAC was found to be a minor groove binder with a preference for the A-T region compared to the G-C region. This was substantiated by displacement studies with Hoechst 33258, a known minor groove binder. Docking studies were found to corroborate the experimental results.