Interaction of BODIPY Dyes with the Blood Plasma Proteins

Photophysical properties of several BODIPY-based fluorescent dyes were investigated in systems containing blood plasma biomolecules and in model system containing bovine serum albumin in terms of electronic absorption and fluorescence spectroscopy. The interaction between the investigated dyes and protein plasma components changes spectral characteristics of the dyes and leads to bathochromic and hypochromic absorption spectra shifts accompanied by changing of fluorescence intensity. The mechanism of fluorescence changing was defined in the terms of Stern-Volmer theory. It was shown that the static factor of molecular dye-biopolymers complex formation prevails at plasma protein concentration up to 1 g/l, while the higher viscosity range is characterized mainly by nonspecific fluorophore interactions. The increase of fluorescent characteristics of phenyl-substituted BODIPY in the presence of proteins caused by resonance energy transfer and change of physicochemical properties of the molecular environment of the fluorophore was shown for the first time.