Dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) is a small amphiphilic molecule which is widely employed in cell biology as an effective penetration enhancer, cell fusogen, and cryoprotectant. Despite the vast number of experimental studies, the molecular basis of its action on lipid membranes is still obscure. A recent simulation study employing coarse-grained models has suggested that DMSO induces pores in the membrane (Notman, R.; Noro, M.; O'Malley, B.; Anwar, J. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2006, 128, 13982-13983). We report here the molecular mechanism for DMSO's interaction with phospholipid membranes ascertained from atomic-scale molecular dynamics simulations. DMSO is observed to exhibit three distinct modes of action, each over a different concentration range. At low concentrations, DMSO induces membrane thinning and increases fluidity of the membrane's hydrophobic core. At higher concentrations, DMSO induces transient water pores into the membrane. At still higher concentrations, individual lipid molecules are desorbed from the membrane followed by disintegration of the bilayer structure. The study provides further evidence that a key aspect of DMSO's mechanism of action is pore formation, which explains the significant enhancement in permeability of membranes to hydrophilic molecules by DMSO as well as DMSO's cryoprotectant activity. The reduction in the rigidity and the general disruption of the membrane induced by DMSO are considered to be prerequisites for membrane fusion processes. The findings also indicate that the choice of DMSO concentration for a given application is critical, as the concentration defines the specific mode of the solvent's action. Knowledge of the distinct modes of action of DMSO and associated concentration dependency should enable optimization of current application protocols on a rational basis and also promote new applications for DMSO.

To gain a better understanding of how monovalent salt under physiological conditions affects plasma membranes, we have performed 200 ns atomic-scale molecular dynamics simulations of phosphatidylcholine (PC) and phosphatidylethanolamine (PE) lipid bilayers. These two systems provide representative models for the outer and inner leaflets of the plasma membrane, respectively. The implications of cation-lipid interactions in these lipid systems have been considered in two different aqueous salt solutions, namely NaCl and KCl, and the sensitivity of the results on the details of interactions used for ions is determined by repeating the simulations with two distinctly different force fields. We demonstrate that the main effect of monovalent salt on a phospholipid membrane is determined by cations binding to the carbonyl region of a membrane, while chloride anions mostly stay in the water phase. It turns out that the strength and character of the cation-lipid interactions are quite different for different types of lipids and cations. PC membranes and Na + ions demonstrate strongest interactions, leading to notable membrane compression. This finding was confirmed by both force fields (Gromacs and Charmm) employed for the ions. The binding of potassium ions to PC membranes (and the overall effect of KCl), in turn, was found to be much weaker mainly due to the larger size of a K + ion compared to Na + . Furthermore, the effect of KCl on PC membranes was found to be force-field sensitive: The binding of a potassium ion was not observed at all in simulations performed with the Gromacs forcefield, which seems to exaggerate the size of a K + ion. As far as PE lipid bilayers are concerned, they are found to be influenced by monovalent salt to a significantly lesser extent compared to PC bilayers, which is a direct consequence of the ability of PE lipids to form both intra-and intermolecular hydrogen bonds and hence to adopt a more densely packed bilayer structure. Whereas for NaCl we observed weak binding of Na + cations to the PE lipid-water interface, in the case of KCl we witnessed almost complete lack of cation binding. Overall, our findings indicate that monovalent salt ions affect lipids in the inner and outer leaflets of plasma cell membranes in substantially different ways.

Anionic palmitoyloleoylphosphatidylglycerol (POPG) is one of the most abundant lipids in nature, yet its atomic-scale properties have not received significant attention. Here we report extensive 150-ns molecular dynamics simulations of a pure POPG lipid membrane with sodium counterions. It turns out that the average area per lipid of the POPG bilayer under physiological conditions is approximately 19% smaller than that of a bilayer built from its zwitterionic phosphatidylcholine analog, palmitoyloleoylphosphatidylcholine. This suggests that there are strong attractive interactions between anionic POPG lipids, which overcome the electrostatic repulsion between negative charges of PG headgroups. We demonstrate that interlipid counterion bridges and strong intra- and intermolecular hydrogen bonding play a key role in this seemingly counterintuitive behavior. In particular, the substantial strength and stability of ion-mediated binding between anionic lipid headgroups leads to complexation of PG molecules and ions and formation of large PG-ion clusters that act in a concerted manner. The ion-mediated binding seems to provide a possible molecular-level explanation for the low permeability of PG-containing bacterial membranes to organic solvents: highly polar interactions at the water/membrane interface are able to create a high free energy barrier for hydrophobic molecules such as benzene.

Cationic lipid membranes are known to form compact complexes with DNA and to be effective as gene delivery agents both in vitro and in vivo. Here we employ molecular dynamics simulations for a detailed atomistic study of lipid bilayers consisting of a mixture of cationic dimyristoyltrimethylammonium propane (DMTAP) and zwitterionic dimyristoylphosphatidylcholine (DMPC). Our main objective is to examine how the composition of the DMPC/DMTAP bilayers affects their structural and electrostatic properties in the liquid-crystalline phase. By varying the mole fraction of DMTAP, we have found that the area per lipid has a pronounced nonmonotonic dependence on the DMTAP concentration, with a minimum around the point of equimolar DMPC/DMTAP mixture. We show that this behavior has an electrostatic origin and is driven by the interplay between positively charged TAP headgroups and the zwitterionic phosphatidylcholine (PC) heads. This interplay leads to considerable reorientation of PC headgroups for an increasing DMTAP concentration, and gives rise to major changes in the electrostatic properties of the lipid bilayer, including a significant increase of total dipole potential across the bilayer and prominent changes in the ordering of water in the vicinity of the membrane. Moreover, chloride counterions are bound mostly to PC nitrogens implying stronger screening of PC heads by Cl ions compared to TAP headgroups. The implications of these findings are briefly discussed.

Formation of transient water pores in biological membranes lies at the heart of many important cellular processes, including fusion events, maintenance of osmotic balance, drug and antibody delivery into cells, and ion transport across the membrane. Ion transport, in particular, is of central interest since membranes strive to maintain a cationic electrochemical gradient used for ATP synthesis as well as a variety of activities, such as transport of nutrients and conveyance of electrical signals. While maintaining the electrochemical gradient is essential, ions yet leak through lipid membranes. The mechanisms of ion leakage are not well understood, however.In this Communication, we show that ion leakage can take place in protein-free membranes through transient water pores induced by a transmembrane ionic charge imbalance (see Figure 1). This mechanism can be expected in cells characterized by ionic concentration differences across the membrane. The view presented here further complements and lends support to previous studies 1-4 for pore formation induced by external fields.We have performed atomic-scale molecular dynamics (MD) simulations on dimyristoylphosphatidylcholine (DMPC) bilayers in the liquid crystalline phase (T ) 323 K) using a united-atom forcefield of Berger et al. 5 Recently, we have used that successfully in MD simulations for mixtures of charged lipids with DMPC. 6 For completeness, we have also conducted simulations at the physiological temperature (T ) 310 K). To implement a transmembrane ionic charge imbalance, we employed a double bilayer setup (i.e., two distinct bilayers in a simulation box). 7,8 All of the simulations were performed using the Gromacs suite. 9 For further simulation details, see Supporting Information (SI).The charge imbalance of six sodium ions per bilayer (i.e., the imbalance of 12 Na + ions in the whole double bilayer system), imposed at the two sides of a DMPC bilayer of 128 lipids, was found to induce, on average, a transmembrane voltage of ∼2.85 ( 0.49 V across the membrane (see Figure 2). This voltage corresponds to an electric field of ∼0.41 V/nm (averaged over the simulation box), which is close to values used in previous studies to induce pore formation by an external electric field. 1,2,4 The applied charge imbalance gives rise to a rapid formation of a water pore within ∼1 ns in one of the two bilayers, the other staying intact. The pore formation starts with the creation of a single water defect (a chain of water molecules) spanning the entire membrane in ∼0.5 ns (see Figure 1B), which then expands rapidly within the next 0.5 ns (see Figures 1C and 3 as well as SI). The latter stage involves considerable redistribution of lipid headgroups close to the defect, surrounding and stabilizing the pore 1,2,4 (see SI).Once a pore has been formed, we find transport of Na + ions through the pore along the Na + concentration gradient ( Figures 1D and 3). The permeation of Na + ions through the pore and the size of the pore are both controlled by the field: the higher t...

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We have employed atomic-scale molecular dynamics simulations to address ion leakage through transient water pores in protein-free phospholipid membranes. Our results for phospholipid membranes in aqueous solution with NaCl and KCl salts show that the formation of transient water pores and the consequent ion leakage can be induced and be driven by a transmembrane ionic charge imbalance, an inherent feature in living cells. These processes take place if the gradient is large enough to develop a sufficiently significant potential difference across the membrane. The transport of cations and anions through the water pores is then seen; it discharges the transmembrane potential, considerably reduces the size of a water pore, and makes the water pore metastable, leading eventually to its sealing. The ion transport is found to be sensitive to the type of ions. It turns out that Na(+) and Cl(-) ions leak through a membrane at approximately the same ratio despite the fact that Na(+) ions are expected to experience a lower potential barrier for the permeation through the pore. This is because of strong interactions of sodium ions with the carbonyl region of a phospholipid membrane as well as with lipid headgroups forming pore "walls," considerably slowing down the permeation of sodium ions. In contrast, we observed a pronounced selectivity of a phospholipid membrane to the permeation of potassium ions as compared to chloride ions: Potassium ions, being larger than sodium ions, interact only weakly with phospholipid headgroups, so that these interactions are not able to compensate for a large difference in free-energy barriers for permeation of K(+) and Cl(-) ions. These findings are found to be robust to a choice of force-field parameters for ions (tested by Gromacs and Charmm force-fields for ions). What is more, a potassium ion is found to be able to permeate a membrane along an alternate, "water-defect-mediated" pathway without actual formation of a pore. The "water-defect-mediated" leakage involves formation of a single water defect only and is found to be at least one order of magnitude faster than the pore-mediated ion leakage.

He graduated from St. Petersburg State University (Russia), where he was trained as a theoretical physicist. After receiving his Ph.D. from the Institute of Macromolecular Compounds in 1999, he spent several years working in the Theoretical Polymer Group of Prof. A. Blumen (University of Freiburg, Germany), in the Biophysics and Soft Matter Group of Prof.