Romanian Society of Pharmaceutical Sciences
 

« Back to Farmacia Journal 2/2019

DNA TARGETING AS A MOLECULAR MECHANISM UNDERLYING ENDOGENOUS INDOLES BIOLOGICAL EFFECTS

CRISTINA MANUELA DRĂGOI 1, ALINA CRENGUŢA NICOLAE 1*, ION-BOGDAN DUMITRESCU 2, DANIELA ELENA POPA 3, MIRELA RITIVOIU 4, ANDREEA LETIŢIA ARSENE 5

1.Department of Biochemistry, Faculty of Pharmacy, “Carol Davila” University of Medicine and Pharmacy, Bucharest, Romania
2 .Department of Physics and Informatics, Faculty of Pharmacy, “Carol Davila” University of Medicine and Pharmacy, Bucharest, Romania
3 .Department of Drug Control, Faculty of Pharmacy, “Carol Davila” University of Medicine and Pharmacy, Bucharest, Romania
4 .Department of Paediatrics, Faculty of Medicine, “Alessandrescu-Rusescu” INSMC, “Carol Davila” University of Medicine and Pharmacy, Bucharest, Romania,
5 .Department of Microbiology, Faculty of Pharmacy, “Carol Davila” University of Medicine and Pharmacy, Bucharest, Romania

Download Full Article PDF

The present study aimed to investigate the potential intra-nuclear signalling mechanism of the endogenous bioindoles: melatonin, serotonin and tryptophan, through their direct interaction with the DNA. The DNA-indoles interaction has been studied in vitro by using a spectrofluorometric method, determining the intensity of the fluorescent signal issued by the indole molecules, natively fluorescent, in the presence of the DNA, molecule which lacks fluorescence. The experimental results highlighted a decrease of the fluorescent signal of the indoles under analysis, in the presence of DNA, proving an in vitro direct interaction the double-stranded DNA quenching the fluorescent signal of the studied endogenous molecules. This masking effect could be due to their intercalation in the double helix DNA structure. The results were significantly higher in the case of DNA-melatonin interaction compared to serotonin (p < 0.0001) and tryptophan (p < 0.0001), respectively. The quenching of the florescent signals of DNA-indole systems were evaluated through the Stern-Volmer constants (KSV). Further on, the type of DNA-indoles bonds has been assessed by means of ethidium bromide (EB) studies and UV spectroscopy was used in order to calculate the binding constants.