Thermodynamic characterization of binding of DNA with cisplatin in aqueous solution by calorimetry

Abstract The behaviour of cis -diamminedichloroplatinum(II) (cisplatin) binding to DNA was studied thermodynamically by calorimetric methods such as flow microcalorimetry and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC). The thermodynamic quantities of binding of cisplatin to DNA were determined from the measurement of the heat of mixing. From the results obtained, it was suggested that the complex formation by the interaction of DNA with cisplatin may be influenced by the entropy term as a dominant factor. UV spectral measurement on solutions having a known concentration of DNA and cisplatin solutions of various concentrations was carried out at room temperature, and the difference of absorption, Δ A 260 at wavelength 260 nm between DNA solutions with and without cisplatin was estimated. From the results obtained, a hyperchromic effect in the DNA solution containing cisplatin was found to exist. The appearance of the hyperchromic effect may be considered to originate from the disturbance of the base stacking between adjacent base pairs of DNA by the interaction of DNA with cisplatin. In addition, the thermal stability of the DNA-cisplatin complex was also studied by DSC method. The binding of cisplatin decreases the thermal stability of DNA; the transition temperature and the heat of the helix-coil transition of DNA decrease accompanying the binding of cisplatin. The decrease of the transition temperature is caused by the kinked DNA(helix') accompanying the appearance of the hyperchromic effect by binding cisplatin; also, the decrease of the heat of helix-coil transition may be based on the cooperative action between the heat of helix-coil transition of the kinked DNA(helix') and the heat of dissociation when cisplatin is dissociated from the DNA-cisplatin complex. By taking into consideration these results, the heat of binding of cisplatin to DNA was estimated to be about −106 kJ per mole of cisplatin.