ABSTRACT
The first combined experimental and theoretical study on the ionization and lipophilic properties of peptide nucleic acid(PNA)derivatives,including eleven PNA monomers and two PNA decamers,is described.The acidity constants(pKa)of individual acidic and basic centers of PNA monomers were measured by automated potentiometric pH titrations in water/methanol solution,and these values were found to be in agreement with those obtained by MoKa software.These results indicate that single nucleobases do not change their pKa values when included in PNA monomers and oligomers.In addition,immobilized artificial membrane chromatography was employed to evaluate the lipophilic properties of PNA monomers and oligomers,which showed the PNA derivatives had poor affinity towards membrane phospholipids,and confirmed their scarce cell penetrating ability.Overall,our study not only is of po-tential relevance to evaluate the pharmacokinetic properties of PNA,but also constitutes a reliable basis to properly modify PNA to obtain mimics with enhanced cell penetration properties.
ABSTRACT
It is well known that the safety and efficacy profile of an inhaled cortocosteroid (ICS) is influenced by the pharmacokinetic properties and associated pharmacodynamic effects of the drug. Freely circulating, protein unbound, and active ICS can cause systemic adverse effects. Therefore, a detailed investigation of drug-protein interaction could be of great interest to understand the pharmacokinetic behaviour of corticosteroids and for the design of new analogues with effective pharmacological properties. In the present work, the interaction between some corticosteroids and human serum albumin (HSA) has been studied by spectroscopic approaches. UV–Vis spectroscopy confirmed that all the investigated corticos-teroids can bind to HSA forming a protein-drug complex. The intrinsic fluorescence of HSA was quenched by all the investigated drugs, which was rationalized in terms of a static quenching mechanism. The thermodynamic parameters determined by the Van't Hoff analysis of the binding constants (negativeΔH andΔS values) clearly indicate thathydrogen bonds and van der Waals forces play a major role in the binding process between albumin and betamethasone, flunisolide and prednisolone, while hydrophobic forces may play a major role in stabilizing albumin-triamcinolone complexes.