Abstract

The distribution and subsequent toxicity of hazardous chemicals can be influenced by their interactions with plasma proteins. In the present study reversible binding of the phosphorothioate insecticides chlorpyrifos and parathion to fatty acid-free bovine serum albumin (BSA) was examined using the technique of equilibrium dialysis. Computer analyses of the binding data revealed that chlorpyrifos and parathion each bound reversibly to a single class of binding sites on BSA, with apparent KD values of 3.4 +/- 0.1 and 11.1 +/- 0.3 microM, respectively. Additionally, the maximal number of binding sites for each insecticide per molecule of BSA was one. Displacement studies using both chlorpyrifos and parathion indicated that each was a competitive inhibitor of the other's binding, suggesting that they were bound to the same site. Incubation of chlorpyrifos oxon or paraoxon with a 1% solution of BSA resulted in limited, EDTA-insensitive formation of 3,5,6-trichloro-2-pyridinol or p-nitrophenol, respectively. Pretreatment of BSA with 5 mM paraoxon, chlorpyrifos oxon, or 1 mM diisopropylfluorophosphate did not alter this activity, suggesting that these reactions resulted from an esterase-like capacity of BSA, and not from phosphorylation of BSA by these oxons.