Membranotropic properties of the water soluble amino acid and peptide derivatives of fullerene C60.

The modifying effects of the products of the equimolar addition Of DL-alanine and DL-alanyl-DL-alanine to fullerene C60 on the structure and permeability of the lipid bilayer of phosphatidylcholine liposomes has been studied using the luminescence probe technique. It is shown that these water soluble amino acid and dipeptide derivatives of fullerene (C60-AD) are quenchers of pyrene fluorescence and erythrosine phosphorescence of in both a water solution and liposomes. To study the permeability of the lipid bilayer a procedure based on the triplet probe technique has been developed. It has been found that the C60-AD derivatives under study are able to localize inside the artificial membrane, to penetrate into the liposomes through the lipid bilayer and to perform activated transmembrane transport of bivalent metal ions.

[Structure formation of water insoluble fullerene amino acid derivatives in organic solvents]. / Strukturoobrazovanie vodonerastvorimykh aminokislotnykh proizvondykh fullerena v organicheskikh rastvoriteliakh.

The time-dependent structure formation of the fullerene derivative of p-amino benzoic acid in organic solvents was studied by scanning electron microscopy. It was shown that, during storage of solutions, the structures are destroyed.

[Suppression of cytomegalovirus infection in cell system by fullerene amino acid derivates]. / Podavlenie tsitomegalovirusnoi infektsii v kletochnoi sisteme aminokislotnymi proizvodnymi fullerena.

Effects of two water-soluble derivatives of fullerene C60-o-aminocaproic acid (C60-ACA) and C60 sodium salt of omega-aminocaproic acid (C60-Na-ACA) on in vitro cytomegalovirus (CMV) infection were studied. C60-Na-ACA 4-5-fold inhibited the cytopathic effect of CMV in comparison with C60-ACA, the effective dose for C60-Na-ACA being 0.6 microgram/ml and that for C60-ACA 2.7 micrograms/ml. Immunocytochemical analysis of virus proteins in infected cells has shown that C60-Na-ACA inhibits the production of late structural CMV protein gB, but does not modify the expression of immediate early nonstructural protein IEp72. Studies of cell viability, growth characteristics, and DNA synthesis revealed that the cytotoxic effect of C60-Na-ACA on human diploid fibroblasts in negligible, the cytotoxicity index varying from 160 to 1500 micrograms/ml in different tests. Selectivity index for C60-Na-ACA is 267-2500, which differs negligibly from that of gancyclovir (100-1000), while the cytotoxicity of C60-Na-ACA is essentially lower.