Investigation of the effect of Acid Yellow17 on the structure and biological activity of calf thymus DNA by multi-spectroscopy, cell viability, and molecular dynamics simulation methods.

Synthetic azo dyes have been widely studied due to their various applications, including their ability to bind to DNA molecules. It has been determined that some of them have adverse impacts on human health. Among these abnormalities, cancer is concerning due to its lethal nature. Acid Yellow 17 (AY17) is a widely used synthetic additive dye in the pharmaceutical, food, and cosmetic industries. In this study, we adopted both biochemical and in silico approaches to evaluate the binding of AY17 to CtDNA. Calculations of the quenching constant (kq) and Stern-Volmer constant (Ksv) revealed that the fluorescence quenching was driven by a static process involving the formation of the CtDNA-AY17 complex in the ground state. Moreover, thermodynamic parameters showed that AY17 spontaneously bound to CtDNA using hydrogen bonds and Van der Waals forces. The circular dichroism analysis discovered that AY17 caused a slight modification in the CtDNA structure. FTIR results supported this finding. Moreover, the results of the MTT assay and flow cytometry of L929 and MCF7 cell lines in the presence of AY17 showed a significant increase in cell viability. The molecular dynamics simulations and docking validated the AY17 binding pattern and groove binding nature with CtDNA, respectively. The obtained results showed that AY17 could contribute to CtDNA interaction and alter cell viability, warranting further investigation.