Investigation of benzene biological effect on hen egg white lysozyme structure and function

Benzene is an organic and aromatic chemical substance which has the worst effect on biological systems among all the pesticides. Too many deaths have been reported by medical approaches that are caused by benzene. Industrial activities are the main source of the benzene pollution. In order to study the biological effects of benzene at the molecular level, the interaction of lysozyme with benzene was investigated. Lysozyme has an important role in nonspecific immunity and plays a critical role in defenseagainst microbial invasion. It has an obvious role in the antimicrobial activity. As a carrier agent, lysozyme is involved in antitumor processes. The interaction of benzene with hen egg white lysozyme has been investigated in this study. The change of protein structure and function is determined by spectroscopy methods. In order to understand the mechanism of benzene effect on lysozyme, chemiluminescence method was performed. Lysozyme absorbance was increased in the presence of different concentrations of benzene. The extrinsic fluorescence of protein was decreased by benzene addition. Results show the increasing production of free radicals according to increase in benzene concentration. It can be concluded that the damaging effect of benzene on lysozyme is through the production of reactive oxygen radicals. So we can conclude that the mentioned structural changes can induce functional alterations in protein. Malfunctions of this protein affect different biological processed at cellular levels.