How cardiolipin peroxidation alters the properties of the inner mitochondrial membrane?

Cardiolipins have multiple vital functions within biological cell membranes, most notably in the energy metabolism associated with the inner mitochondrial membrane. Considering their essential role, peroxidation of cardiolipins may plausibly have significant effects, as peroxidation is known to alter the functionality of lipid molecules. We used atomistic molecular dynamics simulations to study how peroxidation of cardiolipin affects the properties of the inner mitochondrial membrane. To this end, we explored what happens when varying fractions of fatty acid chains of cardiolipin are replaced by its four different oxidized products in systems modeling the inner mitochondrial membrane. We found that the oxidation of cardiolipin leads to a conformational change both in the backbone/head group and in chain regions of oxidized cardiolipin molecules. The oxidized groups were observed to shift closer to the membrane-water interface region, where they formed hydrogen bonds with several other groups. Additionally, the conformational change turned out to decrease bilayer thickness, and to increase the area per lipid chain, though these changes were minor. The acyl chain conformational order of unoxidized lipids exposed to interactions with oxidized cardiolipins was increased in carbons 3-5 and decreased in carbons 13-17 due to the structural reorganization of the cardiolipin molecules. Overall, the results bring up that the conformation of cardiolipin is altered upon oxidation, suggesting that its oxidation may interfere its interactions with mitochondrial proteins and thereby affect cardiolipin-dependent cellular processes such as electron and proton transport.

Could Cardiolipin Protect Membranes against the Action of Certain Antimicrobial Peptides? Aurein 1.2, a Case Study.

The activity of a host of antimicrobial peptides has been examined against a range of lipid bilayers mimicking bacterial and eukaryotic membranes. Despite this, the molecular mechanisms and the nature of the physicochemical properties underlying the peptide-lipid interactions that lead to membrane disruption are yet to be fully elucidated. In this study, the interaction of the short antimicrobial peptide aurein 1.2 was examined in the presence of an anionic cardiolipin-containing lipid bilayer using molecular dynamics simulations. Aurein 1.2 is known to interact strongly with anionic lipid membranes. In the simulations, the binding of aurein 1.2 was associated with buckling of the lipid bilayer, the degree of which varied with the peptide concentration. The simulations suggest that the intrinsic properties of cardiolipin, especially the fact that it promotes negative membrane curvature, may help protect membranes against the action of peptides such as aurein 1.2 by counteracting the tendency of the peptide to induce positive curvature in target membranes.

Role of charged lipids in membrane structures - Insight given by simulations.

Lipids and proteins are the main components of cell membranes. It is becoming increasingly clear that lipids, in addition to providing an environment for proteins to work in, are in many cases also able to modulate the structure and function of those proteins. Particularly charged lipids such as phosphatidylinositols and phosphatidylserines are involved in several examples of such effects. Molecular dynamics simulations have proved an invaluable tool in exploring these aspects. This so-called computational microscope can provide both complementing explanations for the experimental results and guide experiments to fruitful directions. In this paper, we review studies that have utilized molecular dynamics simulations to unravel the roles of charged lipids in membrane structures. We focus on lipids as active constituents of the membranes, affecting both general membrane properties as well as non-lipid membrane components, mainly proteins. This article is part of a Special Issue entitled: Biosimulations edited by Ilpo Vattulainen and Tomasz Róg.

Building Synthetic Sterols Computationally - Unlocking the Secrets of Evolution?

Cholesterol is vital in regulating the physical properties of animal cell membranes. While it remains unclear what renders cholesterol so unique, it is known that other sterols are less capable in modulating membrane properties, and there are membrane proteins whose function is dependent on cholesterol. Practical applications of cholesterol include its use in liposomes in drug delivery and cosmetics, cholesterol-based detergents in membrane protein crystallography, its fluorescent analogs in studies of cholesterol transport in cells and tissues, etc. Clearly, in spite of their difficult synthesis, producing the synthetic analogs of cholesterol is of great commercial and scientific interest. In this article, we discuss how synthetic sterols non-existent in nature can be used to elucidate the roles of cholesterol's structural elements. To this end, we discuss recent atomistic molecular dynamics simulation studies that have predicted new synthetic sterols with properties comparable to those of cholesterol. We also discuss more recent experimental studies that have vindicated these predictions. The paper highlights the strength of computational simulations in making predictions for synthetic biology, thereby guiding experiments.

Atomistic simulations indicate cardiolipin to have an integral role in the structure of the cytochrome bc1 complex.

The reaction mechanism of the cytochrome (cyt) bc1 complex relies on proton and electron transfer to/from the substrate quinone/quinol, which in turn generate a proton gradient across the mitochondrial membrane. Cardiolipin (CL) have been suggested to play an important role in cyt bc1 function by both ensuring the structural integrity of the protein complex and also by taking part in the proton uptake. Yet, the atom-scale understanding of these highly charged four-tail lipids in the cyt bc1 function has remained quite unclear. We consider this issue through atomistic molecular dynamics simulations that are applied to the entire cyt bc1 dimer of the purple photosynthetic bacterium Rhodobacter capsulatus embedded in a lipid bilayer. We find CLs to spontaneously diffuse to the dimer interface to the immediate vicinity of the higher potential heme b groups of the complex's catalytic Qi-sites. This observation is in full agreement with crystallographic studies of the complex, and supports the view that CLs are key players in the proton uptake. The simulation results also allow us to present a refined picture for the dimer arrangement in the cyt bc1 complex, the novelty of our work being the description of the role of the surrounding lipid environment: in addition to the specific CL-protein interactions, we observe the protein domains on the positive side of the membrane to settle against the lipids. Altogether, the simulations discussed in this article provide novel views into the dynamics of cyt bc1 with lipids, complementing previous experimental findings.

Mitochondrial membranes with mono- and divalent salt: changes induced by salt ions on structure and dynamics.

We employ atomistic simulations to consider how mono- (NaCl) and divalent (CaCl(2)) salt affects properties of inner and outer membranes of mitochondria. We find that the influence of salt on structural properties is rather minute, only weakly affecting lipid packing, conformational ordering, and membrane electrostatic potential. The changes induced by salt are more prominent in dynamical properties related to ion binding and formation of ion-lipid complexes and lipid aggregates, as rotational diffusion of lipids is slowed down by ions, especially in the case of CaCl(2). In the same spirit, lateral diffusion of lipids is slowed down rather considerably for increasing concentration of CaCl(2). Both findings for dynamic properties can be traced to the binding of ions with lipid head groups and the related changes in interaction patterns in the headgroup region, where the binding of Na(+) and Ca(2+) ions is clearly different. The role of cardiolipins in these phenomena turns out to be important.

Significance of cholesterol methyl groups.

Cholesterol is an indispensable molecule in mammalian cell membranes. To truly understand its role in the functions of membranes, it is essential to unravel cholesterol's structure-function relationship determined by underlying molecular interactions. For this purpose, we elaborate on this issue by considering the previously proposed idea that cholesterol's effects on a number of physical properties of membranes have been optimized during the evolution by removal of its excess methyl groups from the alpha-face of cholesterol, thus "smoothening" the structure. Consequently, the methyl groups still attached to cholesterol are one of the most intriguing structural features of the molecule. An obvious question arises: Why do these methyl groups still exist, and could cholesterol properties be further optimized by their removal? Because of the nature of the biosynthetic pathways of cholesterol, and the evidence of decreased interactions between sterols and lipid acyl chains when methyl groups are present, it seems plausible that removal of the methyl groups might indeed lead to stronger ordering and condensing effects of the cholesterol molecule. Atomic-scale molecular dynamics simulations of numerous modified sterols embedded in saturated lipid bilayers demonstrate, however, that the issue is more subtle. The analysis reveals a complex interplay between the lipid acyl chains and the structural details of cholesterol. Changes in cholesterol structure typically do not improve its performance in terms of promoting membrane order. This view is substantiated by a detailed analysis of the simulation data. In particular, it highlights the importance of the methyl group C18 for cholesterol properties. The C18 group resides between the third and fourth ring of cholesterol on its "rough" beta-side, and the results provide compelling evidence that C18 is crucial for the proper orientation of the sterol. More generally, the data provide insight into the role of the methyl groups of cholesterol.