Effect of malvidin-3-glucoside and epicatechin interaction on their ability to interact with salivary proline-rich proteins.

At red wine pH, malvidin-3-glucoside (mv-3-glc), the major anthocyanin of red wine, is expected to be present mainly in its non-colored hemiketal form. However, due to copigmentation with flavanols (e.g. epicatechin), the stabilization of the colored forms of mv-3-glc occurs. Some flavanols have been linked to astringency, due to their ability to interact/precipitate salivary proteins, namely proline-rich proteins (PRPs). So, a major question is if this copigmentation interaction could affect the ability of flavanols to interact with SP. To answer this, the effect of the interaction between mv-3-glc and epicatechin with basic and acidic PRPs, was investigated by saturation-tranfer difference (STD)-NMR and isothermal titration calorimetry (ITC). The most relevant result was that epicatechin:mv-3-glc mixture presents a synergic effect toward the interaction with both PRPs when compared to individual polyphenols. Furthermore, was observed that epicatechin interaction was driven by hydrophobic and hydrophilic interactions while mv-3-glc interaction was driven by electrostatic interactions.

Molecular study of mucin-procyanidin interaction by fluorescence quenching and Saturation Transfer Difference (STD)-NMR.

Astringency is closely related to the interaction between procyanidins and salivary proteins (SP). The aim of this work was to study the interaction between mucin, a SP responsible for saliva lubricating properties, with different procyanidins (B4 dimer, tetramer (TT) and fractions of oligomeric procyanidins), and the influence of several conditions [pH, ionic strength, procyanidins' mean degree of polymerization (mDP) and different solvents (ethanol or dimethylsulfoxide)] on this interaction by fluorescence quenching and Saturation Transfer Difference (STD)-NMR. For fractions of oligomeric procyanidins, the mucin-procyanidin interaction increased with mDP; however, for pure compounds, procyanidin TT has lower affinity than dimer B4 which could be due to a lower structural flexibility imposed by its complex structure. Furthermore, EtOH and DMSO can disrupt the main driving forces of these interactions, hydrophobic interactions and hydrogen bonds, respectively, lowering significantly the binding constants.