Lipid tail protrusions mediate the insertion of nanoparticles into model cell membranes
Name
Van Lehn-2014-Lipid tail.pdf
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1.92 MB
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Author(s)
Van Lehn, Reid C.
Ricci, Maria
Silva, Paulo H.J.
Andreozzi, Patrizia
Reguera, Javier
Voïtchovsky, Kislon
Stellacci, Francesco
Alexander-Katz, Alfredo
Date Issued
July 2014
Journal
Nature Communications
Publisher
Nature Publishing Group
Citation
Van Lehn, Reid C., Maria Ricci, Paulo H.J. Silva, Patrizia Andreozzi, Javier Reguera, Kislon Voïtchovsky, Francesco Stellacci, and Alfredo Alexander-Katz. “Lipid Tail Protrusions Mediate the Insertion of Nanoparticles into Model Cell Membranes.” Nat Comms 5 (July 21, 2014).
Version
Final published version
Abstract
Recent work has demonstrated that charged gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) protected by an amphiphilic organic monolayer can spontaneously insert into the core of lipid bilayers to minimize the exposure of hydrophobic surface area to water. However, the kinetic pathway to reach the thermodynamically stable transmembrane configuration is unknown. Here, we use unbiased atomistic simulations to show the pathway by which AuNPs spontaneously insert into bilayers and confirm the results experimentally on supported lipid bilayers. The critical step during this process is hydrophobic–hydrophobic contact between the core of the bilayer and the monolayer of the AuNP that requires the stochastic protrusion of an aliphatic lipid tail into solution. This last phenomenon is enhanced in the presence of high bilayer curvature and closely resembles the putative pre-stalk transition state for vesicle fusion. To the best of our knowledge, this work provides the first demonstration of vesicle fusion-like behaviour in an amphiphilic nanoparticle system.
MIT Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Materials Science and Engineering
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DOI of Published Version
https://doi.org/10.1038/ncomms5482
