Fluorescence quenching and binding interaction of 10-methylacridinium iodide to nucleic acids

Interaction of 10-methylacridinium iodide (MAI) as fluorescence probe with nucleobases, nucleosides and nucleic acids has been studied by UV-visible absorption and fluorescence spectroscopy. It was found that fluorescence of MAI is strongly quenched by the nucleobases, nucleosides and nucleic acids, respectively. The quenching follows the Stern-Volmer linear equation. The fluorescence quenching rate constant (k(q)) was measured to be 10(9)-10(10) (L/mol)/s within the range of diffusion-controlled rate limit, indicating that the interaction between MAI and nucleic acid and their precursors is characteristic of electron transfer mechanism. In addition, the binding interaction model of MAI to calf thymus DNA (ct-DNA) was further investigated. Apparent hypochromism in the absorption spectra of MAI was observed when MAI binds to ct-DNA. Three spectroscopic methods, which include (1) UV spectroscopy, (2) fluorescence quenching of MAI, (3) competitive dual-probe method of MAI and ethidium bromide (EB), were utilized to determine the affinity binding constants (K)of MAI and ct-DNA. The binding constants K obtained from the above methods gave consistent data in the same range (1.0-5.5) x 10(4) L/mol, which lend credibility to these measurements. The binding site number was determined to be 1.9. The influence of thermal denaturation and phosphate concentration on the binding was examined. The binding model of MAI to ct-DNA including intercalation and outside binding was investigated.