Inhibitory activity of polyhydroxycarboxylate chelators against recombinant NF-κB p50 protein–DNA binding

The inhibitory effect of 7,8-dihydroxy-4-methylcoumarin (7,8-DHMC), 5,7-dihydroxy-4-methylcoumarin (5,7-DHMC), and gallic acid on the DNA binding of recombinant p50 protein and their interaction with zinc ion were studied. Electrophoretic mobility shift assay (EMSA) using p50 and biotin labeled DNA has shown that gallic acid is more effective than the dihydroxycoumarins in inhibiting the p50–DNA binding. Molecular modeling studies suggest an explanation for these observations. Effect of the addition of zinc after p50–DNA-binding inhibition by gallic acid was also studied. Chemical speciation and formation constant studies show that gallic acid forms a more stable 1:1 complex with zinc ion in comparison to the dihydroxycoumarins.