Fluorinated diglucose detergents for membrane-protein extraction.

Fluorinated surfactants have scarcely been explored for the direct extraction of proteins from membranes because fluorination is believed to abrogate detergency. However, we have recently shown that a commercially available fluorinated surfactant readily solubilizes lipid membranes, thereby suggesting that fluorination per se does not interfere with detergent activity. In this work, we developed new fluorinated surfactants that exhibit detergency in terms of both lipid-vesicle solubilization and membrane-protein extraction. The compounds made and tested contain two glucose moieties as polar headgroup, a hydrogenated thioether linker, and a perfluorinated alkyl tail with either 4, 6, or 8 carbon atoms. The physicochemical properties of the micelles formed by the three fluorinated surfactants were evaluated by NMR spectroscopy, surface tensiometry, isothermal titration calorimetry, dynamic light scattering, small-angle X-ray scattering, and analytical ultracentrifugation. At 25 °C, micellization was mainly entropy-driven, and the CMC values were found to decrease with chain length of the fluorinated tail, whereas the aggregation number increased with chain length. Remarkably, all three surfactants were found to solubilize lipid vesicles and extract a broad range of proteins from Escherichia coli membranes. These findings demonstrate, for the first time, that nonionic fluorinated surfactants could be further exploited for the direct extraction and solubilization of membrane proteins.

Non-ionic cholesterol-based additives for the stabilization of membrane proteins.

We report herein the synthesis of two non-ionic amphiphiles with a cholesterol hydrophobic moiety that can be used as chemical additives for biochemical studies of membrane proteins. They were designed to show a high similarity with the planar steroid core of cholesterol and small-to-medium polar head groups attached at the C3 position of ring-A on the sterol skeleton. The two Chol-Tris and Chol-DG have a Tris-hydroxymethyl and a branched diglucose polar head group, respectively, which provide them sufficient water solubility when mixed with the "gold standard" detergent n-Dodecyl-ß-D-Maltoside (DDM). The colloidal properties of these mixed micelles were investigated by means of surface tension (SFT) measurements and dynamic light scattering (DLS) experiments and showed the formation of globular micelles of about 8 nm in diameter with a critical micellar concentration of 0.20 mM for DDM:Chol-DG and 0.22 mM for DDM:Chol-Tris. We showed that mixed micelles do not alter the extraction potency of a G-protein coupled receptor (GPCR): the human adenosine A2A receptor (A2AR). The thermostabilizing effect of the mixed micelles was confirmed on two GPCRs, A2AR and the growth hormone secretagogue receptor (GHSR). Finally, these two mixed micelles were found suitable for the purification of an active form of A2AR which remained able to bind two ligands of different class i.e. the specific agonist CGS-21680 and the specific inverse agonist ZM-241385. This suggests that Chol-Tris and Chol-DG may be used as a non-ionic alternative to the cholesteryl hemisuccinate (CHS) stabilizing agent.

Theoretical and Kinetic Analysis of the Esterification of Undecylenic Acid with Glycerol.

The synthesis of undecylenic acid partial esters can be performed at mild temperature with a classical esterification reaction catalyzed by dodecylbenzene sulfonic acid (DBSA). A semi-empirical molecular modeling on the different reaction intermediates indicates that DBSA can strongly decrease their heats of formation through hydrogen bonding. Diester formation seems to be thermodynamically favored with a selectivity for alpha, alpha, or alpha, beta forms that depend on the geometry of the catalyst-intermediate configuration. Triesters are not favored but a high selectivity for monoesters requires a kinetic control. Experimental approach, considering different DBSA concentrations and temperature partially confirms the theoretical predictions but surfactant properties of DBSA and monoesters may induce nonpredicted geometries. Global apparent activation energies are calculated, corresponding to the formation and hydrolysis of mono and diesters. If water trapping allows the decrease of hydrolysis reaction constants, the presence of water and subsequent phase separation may explain differences between theoretical and experimental results and could help increasing monoester selectivity.