Chemically induced phospholipid translocation across biological membranes.

Andrey A Gurtovenko, Olajide I Onike, Jamshed Anwar

Computational Biophysics Laboratory, Institute of Pharmaceutical Innovation, University of Bradford, Bradford, BD7 1DP, U.K.

Langmuir : the ACS journal of surfaces and colloids 2008 Sep 2

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Chemical means of manipulating the distribution of lipids across biological membranes is of considerable interest for many biomedical applications as a characteristic lipid distribution is vital for numerous cellular functions. Here we employ atomic-scale molecular simulations to shed light on the ability of certain amphiphilic compounds to promote lipid translocation (flip-flops) across membranes. We show that chemically induced lipid flip-flops are most likely pore-mediated: the actual flip-flop event is a very fast process (time scales of tens of nanoseconds) once a transient water defect has been induced by the amphiphilic chemical (dimethylsulfoxide in this instance). Our findings are consistent with available experimental observations and further emphasize the importance of transient membrane defects for chemical control of lipid distribution across cell membranes.

Citation

Andrey A Gurtovenko, Olajide I Onike, Jamshed Anwar. Chemically induced phospholipid translocation across biological membranes. Langmuir : the ACS journal of surfaces and colloids. 2008 Sep 2;24(17):9656-60