Amphotericin has remained the powerful but highly toxic last line of defense in treating life-threatening fungal infections in humans for over 50 years with minimal development of microbial resistance. Understanding how this small molecule kills yeast is thus critical for guiding development of derivatives with an improved therapeutic index and other resistance-refractory antimicrobial agents. In the widely accepted ion channel model for its mechanism of cytocidal action, amphotericin forms aggregates inside lipid bilayers that permeabilize and kill cells. In contrast, we report that amphotericin exists primarily in the form of large, extramembranous aggregates that kill yeast by extracting ergosterol from lipid bilayers. These findings reveal that extraction of a polyfunctional lipid underlies the resistance-refractory antimicrobial action of amphotericin and suggests a roadmap for separating its cytocidal and membrane-permeabilizing activities. This new mechanistic understanding is also guiding development of the first derivatives of amphotericin that kill yeast but not human cells.

Multiple human diseases ensue from a hereditary or acquired deficiency of iron-transporting protein function that diminishes transmembrane iron flux in distinct sites and directions. Because other iron-transport proteins remain active, labile iron gradients build up across the corresponding protein-deficient membranes. Here we report that a small molecule natural product, hinokitiol, can harness such gradients to restore iron transport into, within, and/or out of cells. The same compound promotes gut iron absorption in DMT1-deficient rats and ferroportin-deficient mice, as well as hemoglobinization in DMT1- and mitoferrin-deficient zebrafish. These findings illuminate a general mechanistic framework for small molecule-mediated site- and direction-selective restoration of iron transport. They also suggest small molecules that partially mimic the function of missing protein transporters of iron, and possibly other ions, may have potential in treating human diseases.

Loss-of-function mutations in the cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator (CFTR) compromise epithelial HCO 3 − and Cl − secretion, reduce airway surface liquid (ASL) pH, and impair respiratory host defenses in people with cystic fibrosis (CF) 1 – 3 . Here we report that apical addition of an unselective ion channel-forming small molecule, amphotericin B (AmB), restored HCO 3 − secretion and increased ASL pH in cultured human CF airway epithelia. These effects required the basolateral Na + /K + ATPase, indicating that apical AmB channels functionally interfaced with this driver of anion secretion. AmB also restored ASL pH, viscosity, and antibacterial activity in primary cultures of airway epithelia from people with CF caused by different mutations, including ones that yield no CFTR, and increased ASL pH in CFTR -null pigs in vivo . Thus, unselective small molecule ion channels can restore CF airway host defenses via a mechanism that is CFTR-independent and therefore genotype-independent.

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Deficiencies of protein ion channels underlie many currently incurable human diseases. Robust networks of pumps and channels are usually responsible for the directional movement of specific ions in organisms ranging from microbes to humans. We thus questioned whether minimally selective small molecule mimics of missing protein channels might be capable of collaborating with the corresponding protein ion pumps to restore physiology. Here we report vigorous and sustainable restoration of yeast cell growth by replacing missing protein ion channels with imperfect small molecule mimics. We further provide evidence that this tolerance for imperfect mimicry is attributable to collaboration between the channel-forming small molecule and protein ion pumps. These results illuminate a mechanistic framework for pursuing small molecule replacements for deficient protein ion channels that underlie a range of challenging human diseases.

We investigate the nonlinear dynamics of transpassive electrodissolution of nickel in sulfuric acid in an epoxy-based microchip flow cell. We observed bistability, smooth, relaxation, and period-2 waveform current oscillations with external resistance attached to the electrode in the microfabricated electrochemical cell with 0.05 mm diameter Ni wire under potentiostatic control. Experiments with 1mm × 0.1 mm Ni electrode show spontaneous oscillations without attached external resistance; similar surface area electrode in macrocell does not exhibit spontaneous oscillations. Combined experimental and numerical studies show that spontaneous oscillation with the on-chip fabricated electrochemical cell occurs because of the unusually large ohmic potential drop due to the constrained current in the narrow flow channel. This large IR potential drop is expected to have an important role in destabilizing negative differential resistance electrochemical (e.g., metal dissolution and electrocatalytic) systems in on-chip integrated microfludic flow cells. The proposed experimental setup can be extendend to multi-electrode configurations; the epoxy-based substrate procedure thus holds promise in electroanalytical applications that require collector-generator multi-electrodes wires with various electrode sizes, compositions, and spacings as well as controlled flow conditions.

Cholesterol (Chol) is vital for cell function as it is essential to a myriad of biochemical and biophysical processes. The atomistic details of Chol's interactions with phospholipids and proteins is therefore of fundamental interest, and NMR offers unique opportunities to interrogate these properties at high resolution. Towards this end, here we describe approaches for examining the structure and dynamics of Chol in lipid bilayers using high levels of C enrichment in combination with magic-angle spinning (MAS) methods. We quantify the incorporation levels and demonstrate high sensitivity and resolution in 2DC-C and H-C spectra, enabling de novo assignments and site-resolved order parameter measurements obtained in a fraction of the time required for experiments with natural abundance sterols. We envision many potential future applications of these methods to study sterol interactions with drugs, lipids and proteins.

Amphotericin B (AmB) is the archetype for small molecules that form ion channels in living systems, and has recently been shown to replace a missing protein ion transporter and thereby restore physiology in yeast. Molecular modeling studies predict that AmB self-assembles in lipid membranes with the polyol region lining a channel interior that funnels to its narrowest region at the C3-hydroxyl group. This model predicts that modification of this functional group would alter conductance of the AmB ion channel. To test this hypothesis, the C3-hydroxyl group was synthetically deleted and the resulting derivative, C3deoxyAmB (C3deOAmB), was characterized using multidimensional NMR experiments and single ion channel electrophysiology recordings. C3deOAmB possesses the same macrocycle conformation as AmB and retains the capacity to form transmembrane ion channels, yet the conductance of the C3deOAmB channels is threefold lower than that of AmB channels. Thus, the C3-hydroxyl group plays an important role in AmB ion channel conductance, and synthetic modifications at this position may provide an opportunity for further tuning of channel functions.