Spectroscopic and molecular modeling approaches to investigate the interaction of bisphenol A, bisphenol F and their diglycidyl ethers with PPARα

•Interaction of BPA, BPF, BADGE, and BFDGE with mPPARα-LBD* was investigated.•The derivatives exhibited stronger binding potencies than their parent molecules.•The mechanism of BPs-mPPARα-LBD* binding was illustrated by molecular docking.•The proposed method can be used for preliminary screening of these compounds.

A fluorescence polarization (FP) assay for the simultaneous determination of bisphenol A (BPA), bisphenol F (BPF), bisphenol A diglycidyl ether (BADGE) and bisphenol F diglycidyl ether (BFDGE) was developed. The method was based on the competition between bisphenols (BPs) and fluorescein-labeled dexamethasone derivative (Dex-fl) for mouse peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor α ligand binding domain (mPPARα-LBD). A recombinant soluble protein derivative mPPARα-LBD* was prepared, then in vitro binding of 4 BPs to mPPARα-LBD* was investigated. Fluorescence polarization assay showed that these compounds exhibited different binding potencies with mPPARα-LBD*. Additionally, molecular dynamics simulations were performed to further understand the mechanism of BPs binding affinity for mPPARα-LBD*. Docking results elucidated that the driving forces for the binding of BPs to mPPARα-LBD* were predominantly dependent on hydrophobic and hydrogen-bonding interactions. Comparison of the calculated binding energies vs. experimental binding affinities yielded a good correlation (R2 = 0.7258). The proposed method has potential for multi-residue detection of BPA, BPF, BADGE, and BFDGE.

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