Interaction of bovine serum albumin with gemini surfactants.

The interactions between bovine serum albumin and cationic gemini surfactants were investigated as a function of concentration, under different pH conditions. The investigation deals with dielectric relaxation, dynamic light scattering, zeta-potential, circular dichroism, and UV spectroscopy. The interactive behavior of the anionic form is quite different from the cationic species. It indicates that protein-surfactant interactions are mostly electrostatic in nature and depend on the state of charge of bovine serum albumin. The results indicate the presence of both hydrophobic and electrostatic contributions in the interactions of gemini with bovine serum albumin. Comparison of dynamic light scattering, dielectric relaxation, electrophoretic mobility, and optical circular dichroism allows drawing some preliminary hypotheses on the different contributions to surfactant binding and supports former studies on the formation of complexes between the bovine serum albumin and the above species. Copyright 2010 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.