By virtue of the strength of hydrophobic interactions and the malleability of phospholipid acyl chains, membrane lipids become one of the important glues of life. The liquid-crystalline organization of the bilayer component of biological membranes enables the membranes to be effective, cohesive, and yet flexible, barriers separating two fluid compartments. Integral membrane proteins are imbedde...

In this study, the interaction of cisplatin (1) and two potential antitumoral Pt(II) complexes (2 and 3) with a model DMPC bilayer was investigated by multinuclear NMR spectroscopy and MD simulations in order to understand its implication for the different antitumoral properties shown by the three complexes. In particular, (31)P, (13)C and (2)H solid state NMR experiments were performed to obta...

Molecular dynamics simulations of two monounsaturated phosphatidylcholine (PC) bilayers made of 1-palmitoyl-2-oleoyl-PC (POPC; cis-unsaturated) and 1-palmitoyl-2-elaidoyl-PC (PEPC; trans-unsaturated) were carried out to investigate the effect of a double bond in the PC beta-chain and its conformation on the bilayer core. Four nanosecond trajectories were used for analyses. A fully saturated 1,2...

We study the localized magnetic states of an impurity in biased bilayer and trilayer graphene. It is found that the magnetic boundary for bilayer and trilayer graphene shows mixed features of Dirac and conventional fermions. For zero gate bias, as the impurity energy approaches the Dirac point, the impurity magnetization region diminishes for bilayer and trilayer graphene. When a gate bias is a...

In this work, we demonstrate a novel carrier transporting combination made of tungsten trioxide (WO3) nanomaterials and Cs2CO3/PCBM buffer bilayer for the fabrication of perovskite solar cells (PSCs). Two different types of WO3, including nanoparticles and nanorods, were prepared by sol-gel process and hydrothermal method, respectively. Cs2CO3/PCBM buffer bilayer was inserted between WO3 and pe...

The thiazolidinediones (TZDs) are used in the treatment of diabetes mellitus type 2. Their canonical effects are mediated by activation of the peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor γ (PPARγ) transcription factor. In addition to effects mediated by gene activation, the TZDs cause acute, transcription-independent changes in various membrane transport processes, including glucose transport, a...

Hydrophobic thickness mismatch between integral membrane proteins and the surrounding lipid bilayer can produce lipid bilayer thickness deformations. Experiment and theory have shown that protein-induced lipid bilayer thickness deformations can yield energetically favorable bilayer-mediated interactions between integral membrane proteins, and large-scale organization of integral membrane protei...

We present a new strategy to dramatically enhance the stability of freestanding lipid bilayers. We found that an addition of a water in oil emulsion stabilizer, SPAN 80 to a solvent phase guarantees nearly millimeter-scale stable freestanding lipid bilayers. The water permeability, bilayer area, contact angle, and interfacial tension were measured as a function of time and SPAN 80-to-lipid weig...

Membrane elastic properties, which are subject to alteration by compounds such as cholesterol, lipid metabolites and other amphiphiles, as well as pharmaceuticals, can have important effects on membrane proteins. A useful tool for measuring some of these effects is the gramicidin A channels, which are formed by transmembrane dimerization of non-conducting subunits that reside in each bilayer le...

A set of 49 protein nanopore-lipid bilayer systems was explored by means of coarse-grained molecular-dynamics simulations to study the interactions between nanopores and the lipid bilayers in which they are embedded. The seven nanopore species investigated represent the two main structural classes of membrane proteins (alpha-helical and beta-barrel), and the seven different bilayer systems rang...