Crown ether helical peptides are preferentially inserted in lipid bilayers as a transmembrane ion channels.

Oriented circular dichroism was used to study the alignment crown ether-modified peptides. The influence of different N- and C-functionalities was assessed using at variable peptide:lipid ratios from 1:20 to 1:200. Neither the functionalities nor the concentration had any major effect on the orientation. The alignment of the 21-mer peptides was also examined with lipid membranes of different bilayer thickness. The use of synchrotron radiation as light source allowed the study of peptide:lipid molar ratios from 1:20 to 1:1000. For all conditions studied, the peptides were found to be predominantly incorporated as a transmembrane helix into the membrane, especially at low peptide concentration, but started to aggregate on the membrane surface at higher peptide:lipid ratios. The structural information on the preferred trans-bilayer alignment of the crown ether functional groups explains their ion conductivity and is useful for the further development of membrane-active nanochemotherapeutics.

Evaluation of the effect of fluorination on the property of monofluorinated dimyristoylphosphatidylcholines.

The synthesis of three monofluorinated dimyristoylphosphatidylcholines (F-DMPC's), with the fluorine atom located at the extremities of the acyl chain in position 2 of the glycerol (sn-2), is described. The synthetic strategy relies on the coupling of 1-myristoyl-2-hydroxy-sn-glycero-3-phosphocholine (14:0 lyso-PC) and three different fluorinated fatty acids. FTIR results suggest that the presence of the fluorine atom does not significantly perturb the lipid phase transition temperature and conformational order even though a small increase in the phase transition temperature is observed for the 14F derivative. Overall, comparison with previously reported F-DMPC's where the fluorine atom is located in the middle or close from either side supports the fact that monofluorination of the acyl chain in sn-2 brings minimal perturbation to the lipid bilayer. F-DMPC's could therefore potentially be used as NMR probes for the investigation at the molecular level of the interaction between drugs or peptides and lipid membranes and for the study of membrane topology.