2,2,2-trifluoroethanol

Specific investigations: other studies

Administrative data

Endpoint:

biochemical or cellular interactions

Type of information:

experimental study

Adequacy of study:

other information

Study period:

no data

Reliability:

4 (not assignable)

Rationale for reliability incl. deficiencies:

other: Study focused on a specific point.

Cross-reference

Reason / purpose for cross-reference:

reference to same study

Data source

Reference

Reference Type:

publication

Title:

Unnamed

Year:

2005

Applicant's summary and conclusion

Executive summary:

Thermal unfolding of bovine serum albumine (BSA) has been studied in the presence of 2,2,2 -trifluoroethanol (TFE) using high-sensitivity microdifferential scanning calorimetry. Quantitative thermodynamic parameters accompanying the thermal transitions have been evaluated. TFE is observed to be a stabilizer or a destabilizer of the folded state of BSA depending on the pH. CD spectroscopy revealed an increase in the alpha-helical content of BSA and a decrease in the tertiary structure in the presence of increasing molalities of TFE. Isothermal titration calorimetric results do not indicate appreciable binding of the TFE molecules to BSA. THE quenches the steady-state tryptophan fluorescence of BSA only at higher molalities and there is no effect on the tryptophan fluorescence at lower molalities. The calorimetric and spectroscopic results obtained in this work suggest that solvent-mediated effects dominate the interaction of TFE with BSA and the binding component may be very weak. Since the binding component is very weak, one of the possibilities of anesthetic action of TFE molecules on the actual targets may be through perturbation of the structural and dynamic properties of the lipid bilayer so that the function of crucial but unspecified membrane proteins is affected.