Electrochemical, spectroscopic, and molecular docking studies of the interaction between the anti-retroviral drug indinavir and dsDNA

Fariba Mollarasouli; Burcu Dogan-Topal; Mehmet Gokhan Caglayan; Tugba Taskin-Tok; Sibel A Ozkan

doi:10.1016/j.jpha.2020.08.004

Electrochemical, spectroscopic, and molecular docking studies of the interaction between the anti-retroviral drug indinavir and dsDNA

J Pharm Anal. 2020 Oct;10(5):473-481. doi: 10.1016/j.jpha.2020.08.004. Epub 2020 Aug 10.

Authors

Fariba Mollarasouli^{1

2}, Burcu Dogan-Topal¹, Mehmet Gokhan Caglayan¹, Tugba Taskin-Tok^{3

4}, Sibel A Ozkan¹

Affiliations

¹ Ankara University, Department of Analytical Chemistry, 06560, Ankara, Turkey.
² Department of Chemistry, Yasouj University, Yasouj, 75918-74831, Iran.
³ Department of Chemistry, Gaziantep University, 27310, Gaziantep, Turkey.
⁴ Institute of Health Sciences, Department of Bioinformatics and Computational Biology, Gaziantep University, 27310, Gaziantep, Turkey.

Abstract

In this study, an electrochemical DNA biosensor was developed using a straightforward methodology to investigate the interaction of indinavir with calf thymus double-stranded deoxyribonucleic acid (ct-dsDNA) for the first time. The decrease in the oxidation signals of deoxyguanosine (dGuo) and deoxyadenosine (dAdo), measured by differential pulse voltammetry, upon incubation with different concentrations of indinavir can be attributed to the binding mode of indinavir to ct-dsDNA. The currents of the dGuo and dAdo peaks decreased linearly with the concentration of indinavir in the range of 1.0-10.0 μg/mL. The limit of detection and limit of quantification for indinavir were 0.29 and 0.98 μg/mL, respectively, based on the dGuo signal, and 0.23 and 0.78 μg/mL, respectively, based on the dAdo signal. To gain further insights into the interaction mechanism between indinavir and ct-dsDNA, spectroscopic measurements and molecular docking simulations were performed. The binding constant (K_b) between indinavir and ct-dsDNA was calculated to be 1.64 × 10⁸ M^-1, based on spectrofluorometric measurements. The obtained results can offer insights into the inhibitory activity of indinavir, which could help to broaden its applications. That is, indinavir can be used to inhibit other mechanisms and/or hallmarks of viral diseases.

Keywords: Biosensor; Calf thymus double-stranded deoxyribonucleic acid (ct-dsDNA); Fluorescence; Glassy carbon electrode; Molecular docking.