Biothermodynamic characterization of monocarboxylic and dicarboxylic aliphatic acids binding to human serum albumin: a flow microcalorimetric study.

Thermodynamic parameters have been evaluated for the binding of unbranched monocarboyxlic aliphatic acids (MCAs) of 4 to 16 carbons (MC4 to MC16) and dicarboxylic aliphatic acids (DCAs) of 4 to 16 carbons (DC4 to DC16) to human serum albumin (HSA) on the basis of microcalorimetric measurement at pH 7.4 and 37 degrees C by computer-fitting to single- and two-class binding models. Long-chain MCAs (MC10 to MC16) and DCAs (DC14 and DC16) had the first class of binding sites with high affinity (large binding constant) of 10(5) to 10(6) M-1 and the second class with lower affinity and high capacity (large numbers of binding sites). Short- or medium-chain MCAs and DCAs bound to HSA at some low affinity binding sites. The binding constants of MCAs were ten times larger than those of DCAs. All the relationships between the thermodynamic parameters and alkyl-chain length of the acids showed clear-cut inflections in their plots around eight or nine methylene units. The free energy change of the first class of binding sites (- delta G1) became more negative with an increment of -1.0 kJ mol-1 CH2(-1) as the alkyl-chain length increased, but there were steep rises between MC9 and MC11 with -2.90 kJ mol-1 CH2(-1) and between DC9 and DC12 with -2.02 kJ mol-1 CH2(-1). The enthalpy change (- delta H) increased at the rate of -7.4 kJ mol-1 CH2(-1) to the maximum at MC9 and DC10, then decreased due to hydrophobicity of the alkyl-chains. From compensation analyses (delta H vs. delta S and delta G), HSA binding sites were characterized into three groups.