The interaction of raltitrexed（RTX） with bovine serum albumin（BSA） was investigated by steady state/lifetime fluorescence spectroscopy and circular dichroism（CD） spectroscopy under the simulative physiological conditions.The results of fluorescence titration reveal that RTX could strongly quench the intrinsic fluorescence of BSA via a static quenching procedure.The obtained binding constant K A of RTX with BSA was 478630 and 44259 L/mol at 298 and 310 K,respectively.According to van＇t Hoff equation,the thermodynamic parameters ΔH,ΔG and ΔS were calculated,indicating that hydrophobic forces were the predominant intermolecular forces in stabilizing the complex.The binding process was a spontaneous process,in which Gibbs free energy change was negative.According to F rster＇s non-radioactive energy transfer theory,the distance r between donor（BSA） and acceptor（RTX） was 3.82 nm,suggesting that the energy transfer from BSA to RTX occurred with high probability.Displacement experiment and the number of binding sites calculation confirmed that RTX could bind to the site-I of BSA.Furthermore,the effects of pH and some metal ions on the interaction of RTX with BSA were also investigated.The results of synchronous fluorescence and CD spectra show that the RTX-BSA binding induced conformational changes in BSA.
