We have exploited the intrinsic fluorescence properties of the anthracycline antitumor antibiotics to study the dependence on drug structure of relative drug location and dynamics when the anthracyclines were bound to sonicated dimyristoylphosphatidylcholine (DMPC) and dipalmitoylphosphatidylcholine (DPPC) vesicles at 27.5 degrees C. Iodide quenching experiments at constant ionic strength were used to evaluate the relative accessibilities of the bound fluorophores to membrane-impermeable iodide. Iodide was found to quench the fluorescence of anthracyclines in free solution by both static and dynamic mechanisms, whereas quenching of membrane-bound fluorophores was predominantly due to the dynamic mechanism. Modified Stern-Volmer plots of anthracyclines bound to fluid-phase DMPC bilayers were linear, and the biomolecular rate constant (kq) values ranged from 0.6 X 10(9) to 1.3 X 10(9) M-1 s-1. Modified Stern-Volmer plots of anthracyclines bound to solid-phase DPPC bilayers were curved, indicative of a heterogeneous-bound drug population. A strong correlation between drug hydrophobicity and penetration of the fluorophore into the bilayer was observed for the daunosamine-containing anthracyclines. Steady-state fluorescence anisotropy measurements under iodide quenching conditions were used to investigate the diffusive motions of anthracyclines in isotropic solvent and in fluid-phase DMPC bilayers. Anthracycline derivatives free in solution exhibited limiting anisotropy (alpha infinity) values which decayed to zero at times long compared to the excited-state lifetime, in contrast to anthracyclines bound to fluid-phase DMPC bilayers, which showed nonzero alpha infinity values. Steady-state anisotropies of membrane-bound anthracyclines were found to be governed principally by alpha infinity and not by the mean rotational rate (R).(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)