Thermodynamic Studies of Antimalarial Drugs and Their Interaction with Myoglobin, Hemoglobin and Phospholipid Model Membranes

In this research we present binding studies of some selected antimalarial drugs such as primaquine and quinacrine with biomolecules. Ultraviolet-visible spectrophotometry and fluorescence spectrophotometry along with equilibrium dialysis techniques were used to monitor the interaction of these drugs with myoglobin, hemoglobin albumin and with phospholipid unilamellar vesicles. Fluorescence spectrophotometry, UV-visible difference spectrophotometry and equilibrium dialysis showed no evidence of any binding of these drugs to myoglobin or hemoglobin. However, binding to albumin was evident from a blue shift in UV-Vis absorption spectra. Both primaquine and quinacrine were found to bind to phospholipid vesicles with binding constants of 2.7 ± 0.4x102 and 8.1 ± 0.8x104, respectively. As for the number of molecules per binding site, we found that eight molecules of primaquine occupies ten binding sites and in case of quinacrine two drug molecule for each ten binding sites. Physical parameters for primaquine are determined via UV-Vis absorption at a wavelength of 350 nm. In case of quinacrine fluorescence intensity was employed to measure concentrations with an excitation wavelength of 425 nm and an emission wavelength at 497 nm.