Interaction of sulindac and metabolite with human serum albumin.

The binding of the newly developed nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory agent sulindac and its principal active metabolite, sunlindac sulfide, to human serum albumin was investigated. With the methods of dialysis, fluorescence quenching, and difference spectrophotometry, it was found that both agents were extensively bound to albumin. The binding affinity of the metabolite was considerably higher than that of sunlindac and this effect may be related to its prolonged plasma half-life versus the parent drug. Sulindac binding was albumin concentration dependent, which gave rise to an unfamilar Scatchard analysis of the dialysis data.