Does Viscosity Decoupling Guarantee Dynamic Heterogeneity? A Clue through an Excitation and Emission Wavelength-Dependent Time-Resolved Fluorescence Anisotropy Study

Traditionally, deviation from Stokes-Einstein-Debye (SED) relation in terms of viscosity dependence of medium dynamics, i.e., τ x ∝ ( η T ) p with p ≠ 1, is taken as a signature of dynamic heterogeneity. However, it does not guarantee medium heterogeneity, as the decoupling may also originate from the deviation of the basic assumption of SED. Here, we developed a method to find a stronger relation between viscosity decoupling (p ≠ 1) and dynamic heterogeneity in terms of rotational motion. Our approach exploited the fact that in heterogeneous media, a solvatochromic probe will be solvated to a different extent at different microdomains (subpopulations), and photoselection of these subpopulations can be achieved by excitation or emission wavelength-dependent measurements. We hypothesized that the dynamics of a homogeneous system might show viscosity decoupling, but the extent of decoupling at different excitations (or at different emissions) should not be different. On the other hand, in a heterogeneous medium, this extent of viscosity decoupling (p-value) should be different at different excitations (or at different emissions). As proof of concept, we investigated three versatile solvent media: squalane (viscous molecular liquid), 1-ethyle-3-methylimidazolium ethyl sulfate ionic liquid (IL), and [0.78 acetamide + 0.22 LiNO3] deep eutectic solvent (DES). We found that squalane is homogeneous, although it shows fractional viscosity dependence (p ≠ 1). Interestingly, mild heterogeneity in IL and significant heterogeneity in the DES were observed. Overall, we conclude that the difference in the p-value as a function of excitation (or emission) wavelength-dependent might be a superior way for the detection of dynamic heterogeneity.

Region-Specific Double Denaturation of Human Serum Albumin: Combined Effects of Temperature and GnHCl on Structural and Dynamical Responses

In this work, we have investigated the effects of denaturing agents, guanidine hydrochloride (GnHCl) and temperature, on the overall structure, domain-I, and domain-III of human serum albumin (HSA) using circular dichroism (CD) spectroscopy and steady-state, time-resolved fluorescence spectroscopy. We have tagged Cys-34 of HSA, located at domain-I, using N-(7-dimethylamino-4-methylcoumarin-3-yl)iodoacetamide and Tyr-411 of HSA, located at domain-III, using p-nitrophenyl coumarin ester, for this purpose. The CD spectroscopy studies reveal the overall denaturation of the protein. The denaturation follows the expected direction in which the protein is denatured with an increase in the concentration of GnHCl or temperature. The α-helicity of the native state of HSA was found to be 64.2%, and the minimum value of α-helicity was found to be 14.8% in the presence of 6 M GnHCl at room temperature. Steady-state emission studies were carried out on domain-I and domain-III of the protein using site-specific fluorescent tags. The degree of folding of the two domains at different combinations of temperature and GnHCl concentration was calculated and was found to follow a slightly different course of denaturation. Solvation dynamics was found to be quite different for these two domains. The domain-I of HSA has a maximum solvation time of 0.39 ns, and the solvation time tends to decrease with the action of either temperature or GnHCl. On the other hand, the domain-III of HSA showed a much higher solvation time (1.42 ns) and does not show any regular change at higher temperatures or in the presence of GnHCl. This difference could be attributed to the different microenvironment inside the protein cores of the two domains.