Structure and location of amiodarone in a membrane bilayer as determined by molecular mechanics and quantitative x-ray diffraction
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Dipalmitoylphosphatidylcholine
Lipid bilayers, which consist of dipalmitoylglycerophosphocholines (DPPCs), PEGylated lipids, cholesterols, and elastin-like polypeptides (ELPs; [VPGVG]3) at different molar ratios, were simulated. Simulations were carried out for 2 μs using the coarse-grained (CG) model that had captured the experimentally observed phase behavior of PEGylated lipids and lateral diffusivity of DPPC bilayers. Starting with the initial position of ELPs on the bilayer surface, ELPs insert into the hydrophobic region of the bilayer because of their interaction with lipid tails, consistent with previous all-atom simulations. Lateral diffusion coefficients of DPPCs significantly increase in the bilayer composed of more ELPs and less cholesterols, showing their opposite effects on the bilayer dynamics. In particular, ELPs modulate the dynamics and phase for the disordered liquid bilayer, but not for the ordered gel bilayer, indicating that ELPs can destabilize only the disordered bilayer. In the ordered bilayer, ELP chains tend to have a spherical shape and slowly diffuse, while they are extended and diffuse faster in the disordered bilayer, indicating the effect of the bilayer phase on the conformation and diffusivity of ELPs. These findings explain the experimental observation that the ELP-conjugated liposomes are stable at 310 K (ordered phase) but become unstable and release the encapsulated drugs at 315 K (disordered phase), which suggests the effects of ELPs and cholesterols. Since the cholesterol-stabilized bilayer can be destabilized by the extended shaped ELPs only in the disordered phase (not in the ordered phase), the inclusion of cholesterols is required to safely shield drugs at 310 K as well as allow ELPs to disrupt lipids and destabilize the liposomes at 315 K.
Lipid bilayer mechanics
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Bax-α5 and Bcl-xL-α5, which are shorter versions of apoptosis-regulating proteins Bax and Bcl-xL, were simulated with lipid bilayers composed of pure dioleoylglycerophosphocholine (DOPC) lipids or a mixture of DOPCs and cholesterols. Starting with the initial peptide position near the bilayer surface, both Bax-α5 and Bcl-xL-α5 bind to the bilayer because of their charge interactions with lipid head groups. After binding to the bilayer surface, Bax-α5 inserts into the pure DOPC bilayer, but not into the DOPC-cholesterol bilayer, showing the effect of cholesterols on the peptide-bilayer interaction. Despite the similar peptide structure, Bcl-xL-α5 does not insert into the bilayer, in contrast to the interaction of Bax-α5 with the bilayer. Bcl-xL-α5 predominantly has the random-coil structure in both aqueous and membrane environments, while Bax-α5 shows a higher extent of α-helical structure in the bilayer than in water, in quantitative agreement with experiment. In particular, although Bax-α5 and Bcl-xL-α5 have the same extent of the electrostatic interaction with lipid head groups, Bax-α5 has stronger hydrophobic interaction with lipid tails than does Bcl-xL-α5. These indicate that Bax-α5 retains α-helical structure, where hydrophobic residues on one side of the α-helix interact with lipid tails and thus can easily attract the peptide into the lipid-tail region, while Bcl-xL-α5 forms a random coil that tends to spread on the bilayer surface and thus has weaker hydrophobic interaction with lipid tails. Our findings help explain the experimental observation that showed that Bax-α5 disorders lipids and induces pore formation, but Bcl-xL-α5 does not.
Random coil
Bcl-xL
Lipid bilayer mechanics
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Dipalmitoylphosphatidylcholine
Lipid bilayer mechanics
Disaccharide
Model lipid bilayer
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Lipid bilayer mechanics
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Membrane biophysics
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Dipalmitoylphosphatidylcholine
Lipid bilayer mechanics
Model lipid bilayer
Disaccharide
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Dipalmitoylphosphatidylcholine
Lipid bilayer mechanics
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Lipid bilayer mechanics
Model lipid bilayer
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Lipid bilayer mechanics
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We show, via molecular simulations, that not only does cholesterol induce a lipid order, but the lipid order also enhances cholesterol localization within the lipid leaflets. Therefore, there is a strong interdependence between these two phenomena. In the ordered phase, cholesterol molecules are predominantly present in the bilayer leaflets and orient themselves parallel to the bilayer normal. In the disordered phase, cholesterol molecules are mainly present near the center of the bilayer at the midplane region and are oriented orthogonal to the bilayer normal. At the melting temperature of the lipid bilayers, cholesterol concentration in the leaflets and the bilayer midplane is equal. This result suggests that the localization of cholesterol in the lipid bilayers is mainly dictated by the degree of ordering of the lipid bilayer. We validate our findings on 18 different lipid bilayer systems, obtained from three different phospholipid bilayers with varying concentrations of cholesterol. To cover a large temperature range in simulations, we employ the Dry Martini force field. We demonstrate that the Dry and the Wet Martini (with polarizable water) force fields produce comparable results.
Lipid bilayer mechanics
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