Unique Aggregation of Sterigmatocystin in Water Yields Strong and Specific Circular Dichroism Response Allowing Highly Sensitive and Selective Monitoring of Bio-Relevant Interactions
Overview of Jakšić D et al.
Authors | Jakšić D  Šegvić Klarić M  Crnolatac I  Šijaković Vujičić N  Smrečki V  Górecki M  Pescitelli G  Piantanida I   |
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Affiliation | Ruđer Bošković Institute   Bijenička c. 54   10000 Zagreb   Croatia.   |
Journal | Mar Drugs |
Year | 2019 |
Abstract
We demonstrated the hitherto unknown property of the mycotoxin sterigmatocystin (STC) to provide homogeneous solutions in aqueous medium by forming a unique aggregate type (not formed by analogous aflatoxins), characterized by exceptionally strong circular dichroism (CD) bands in the 300-400 nm range. Results showed that these CD bands do not originate from intrinsic STC chirality but are a specific property of a peculiar aggregation process similar to psi-DNA CD response. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) experiments revealed a fine fiber network resembling a supramolecular gel structure with helical fibers. Thermodynamic studies of aggregates by differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) revealed high reversibility of the dominant aggregation process. We demonstrated that the novel STC psi-CD band at 345 nm could be applied at biorelevant conditions (100 nanomolar concentration) and even in marine-salt content conditions for specific and quantitative monitoring of STC. Also, we showed that STC strongly non-covalently interacts with ds-DNA with likely toxic effects, thus contrary to the previous belief requiring prior enzyme epoxidation.