Self-association of 8-anilino-1-naphthalene-sulfonate molecules: spectroscopic characterization and application to the investigation of protein folding.

It was suggested long ago that the reason for the considerable increase of 8-anilino-1-naphthalene-sulfonate (8-ANS) fluorescence intensity upon the transition from aqueous to organic solvents is the dissociation of 8-ANS associates. To clarify this point the dependence of spectral properties of the dye on concentration and solvent composition was investigated by means of steady-state and time-resolved fluorescence spectroscopy. It was shown that the increase of 8-ANS concentration leads to the changes in the shape of absorption and fluorescence spectra of the dye, accompanied by the decrease in its fluorescence decay time values. Such changes were observed in aqueous and organic solvents for Mg2+- and NH+4-salts of 8-anilino-1-naphthalene-sulfonateic acid and reflect the existence of self-association of the dye molecules in both media. However, the decrease in fluorescence intensity induced by the self-association of the probe molecules is too small to explain weak fluorescence of 8-ANS in water. At the same time, it expounds the difference between the decay times of protein-embedded 8-ANS molecules upon interaction of this probe with native and molten globule proteins.