Membrane proteins (MPs) are essential for cellular functions. Understanding the functions of MPs is crucial as they constitute an important class of drug targets. However, MPs are a challenging class of biomolecules to analyze because they cannot be...
Supported lipid bilayers (SLBs) on quartz crystals are employed as versatile model systems for studying cell membrane behavior with the use of the highly sensitive technique of quartz crystal microbalance with dissipation monitoring (QCM-D). Since th...
We measured the conductance of bilayer lipid membranes of diphytanoylphosphatidylcholine induced by interaction with cubic magnetic nanoparticles (MNPs) of cobalt ferrite 12 and 27 nm in size and coated with a hydrophilic shell. The MNP coating is hu...
Background: The transformation of the supported lipid bilayer (SLB) membrane by extracted cytosol from living resources, has recently drawn much attention. It enables us to address the question of whether the purified phospholipid SLB membrane, inclu...
Inelastic (dissipative) effects of different natures in lipid bilayer membranes can lead to hysteresis phenomena. Early, it was shown that lipid bilayer membranes, under the action of a periodic sinusoidal voltage, demonstrate pinched-hysteresis loop...
In light of regulatory considerations, there are ongoing efforts to identify Triton X-100 (TX-100) detergent alternatives for use in the biological manufacturing industry to mitigate membrane-enveloped pathogen contamination. Until now, the efficacy...
The Gram-negative bacterium Bordetella pertussis is the cause of whooping cough. One of its pathogenicity factors is the adenylate cyclase toxin (CyaA) secreted by a Type I export system. The 1706 amino acid long CyaA (177 kDa) belongs to the continu...
Supported lipid bilayers (SLBs) are widely used in biophysical research to probe the functionality of biological membranes and to provide diagnoses in high throughput drug screening. Formation of SLBs at below phase transition temperature (Tm) has ap...
Triton X-100 (TX-100) is a widely used detergent to prevent viral contamination of manufactured biologicals and biopharmaceuticals, and acts by disrupting membrane-enveloped virus particles. However, environmental concerns about ecotoxic byproducts a...
Lateral transport and release of protons at the water–membrane interface play crucial roles in cell bioenergetics. Therefore, versatile techniques need to be developed for investigating as well as clarifying the main features of these processes...
The importance of cell membranes in biological systems has prompted the development of model membrane platforms that recapitulate fundamental aspects of membrane biology, especially the lipid bilayer environment. Tethered lipid bilayers represent one...
This review identifies the ways in which tethered bilayer lipid membranes (tBLMs) can be used for the identification of the actions of antimicrobials against lipid bilayers. Much of the new research in this area has originated, or included researcher...
The capability of lipid bilayers to exhibit fluid-phase behavior is a fascinating property, which enables, for example, membrane-associated components, such as lipids (domains) and transmembrane proteins, to diffuse within the membrane. These diffusi...
Lipid membranes regulate the flow of nutrients and communication signaling between cells and protect the sub-cellular structures. Recent attempts to fabricate artificial systems using nanostructures that mimic the physiological properties of natural...
Biomimetic lipid platforms provide versatile tools for mimicking various types of biological membranes and enable investigation of how industrially important amphiphiles (e.g., permeation enhancers and surfactants) interact with different membrane co...
The plasma membrane is a highly compartmentalized, dynamic material and this organization is essential for a wide variety of cellular processes. Nanoscale domains allow proteins to organize for cell signaling, endo- and exocytosis, and other essentia...
Artificial lipid bilayers are an essential tool to investigate channel forming proteins. A particular challenge is to study antibiotic uptake through bacterial porins requiring low volume and parallelization. Here, we present a lipid bilayer silicon...
The lateral pressure profile constitutes an important physical property of lipid bilayers, influencing the binding, insertion, and function of membrane-active peptides, such as antimicrobial peptides. In this study, we demonstrate that the lateral pr...
We report electrochemical impedance spectroscopy measurements to characterize the membrane-disruptive properties of medium-chain fatty acid and monoglyceride mitigants interacting with tethered bilayer lipid membrane (tBLM) platforms composed of E. c...
The bilayer lipid membrane (BLM) is the main structural component of cell membranes, in which various membrane proteins are embedded. Artificially formed BLMs have been used as a platform in studies of the functions of membrane proteins, including va...
Tethered bilayer lipid membranes (tBLMs) have been known as stable and versatile experimental platforms for protein–membrane interaction studies. In this work, the assembly of functional tBLMs on silver substrates and the effect of the molecular chai...
Thickness of lipid bilayer membranes is a key physical parameter determining membrane permeability and stability with respect to formation of through pores. Most membrane inclusions or impurities like amphipathic peptides, transmembrane peptides, lip...
The modification of archaeal lipid bilayer properties by the insertion of apolar molecules in the lipid bilayer midplane has been proposed to support cell membrane adaptation to extreme environmental conditions of temperature and hydrostatic pressure...
Tethered bilayer lipid membranes (tBLMs) are increasingly used in biosensor applications where electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) is the method of choice for amplifying and recording the activity of membrane-damaging agents such as pore-for...
The plasma membrane is a lipid bilayer that establishes the outer boundary of a living cell. The composition of the lipid bilayer influences the membrane’s biophysical properties, including fluidity, thickness, permeability, phase behavior, cha...
Cytolysin LktA is one of the major pathogenicity factors of Mannheimia haemolytica (formerly Pasteurella haemolytica) that is the cause of pasteurellosis, also known as shipping fever pneumonia, causing substantial loss of sheep and cattle during tra...
Influenza A virus envelope contains lipid molecules of the host cell and three integral viral proteins: major hemagglutinin, neuraminidase, and minor M2 protein. Membrane-associated M1 matrix protein is thought to interact with the lipid bilayer and...
KCNE3 is a single-pass integral membrane protein that regulates numerous voltage-gated potassium channel functions such as KCNQ1. Previous solution NMR studies suggested a moderate degree of curved α-helical structure in the transmembrane domai...
Build-up of the energized state of thylakoid membranes and the synthesis of ATP are warranted by organizing their bulk lipids into a bilayer. However, the major lipid species of these membranes, monogalactosyldiacylglycerol, is a non-bilayer lipid. I...
The cell membrane contains a variety of receptors that interact with signaling molecules. However, agonist–receptor interactions not always activate a signaling cascade. Amphitropic membrane proteins are required for signal propagation upon lig...
Understanding the membrane interactions of the N-terminal 17 residues of the huntingtin protein (HttN) is essential for unraveling its role in cellular processes and its impact on huntingtin misfolding. In this study, we used atomic force microscopy...
This review presents a comprehensive analysis of electric field distribution at the water–lipid membrane interface in the context of its relationship to various biochemical problems. The main attention is paid to the methodological aspects of bioelec...
Antimicrobial peptides are key components of the immune system. These peptides affect the membrane in various ways; some form nano-sized pores, while others only produce minor defects. Since these peptides are increasingly important in developing ant...
Supported lipid bilayers are artificial lipid bilayer membranes existing at the interface between solid substrates and aqueous solution. Surface structures and properties of the solid substrates affect the formation process, fluidity, two-dimensional...
Optical switches in lipid membranes are an emerging tool to tune the properties of the bilayer or membrane protein integrated therein. Here, we use simple geometry and physics considerations to deduce structural criteria to design efficient photoacti...
Cholesterol (Chol) is an essential component of animal cell membranes and is most abundant in plasma membranes (PMs) where its concentration typically ranges from 10 to 30 mol%. However, in red blood cells and Schwann cells, PMs Chol content is as hi...
It is well established that plant thylakoid membranes (TMs), in addition to a bilayer, contain two isotropic lipid phases and an inverted hexagonal (HII) phase. To elucidate the origin of non-bilayer lipid phases, we recorded the 31P-NMR spectra of i...
The membrane of the human red cell consists of a lipid bilayer and a so-called membrane skeleton attached on the cytoplasmic side of the bilayer. Upon the deformation of red cells, energy is dissipated in their cytoplasm and their membrane. As to the...
This mini-review intends to highlight the importance of bilayer asymmetry. Biological membranes are complex structures that are a physical barrier separating the external environment from the cellular content. This complex bilayer comprises an extens...
Artificial bilayer containing reconstituted ion channels, transporters and pumps serve as a well-defined model system for electrophysiological investigations of membrane protein structure–function relationship. Appropriately constructed microchips co...
The ubiquitous presence of nanoplastics (NPs) in natural ecosystems is a serious concern, as NPs are believed to threaten every life form on Earth. Micro- and nanoplastics enter living systems through multiple channels. Cell membranes function as the...
This paper describes a method for a bilayer lipid membrane (BLM) formation using a perforated sheet along with an open chamber. Microscopic observation of the formed membrane showed a typical droplet interface bilayer. We proved that the formed membr...
To date, it has been reliably shown that the lipid bilayer/water interface can be thoroughly characterized by a sophisticated so-called “dynamic molecular portrait”. The latter reflects a combination of time-dependent surface distributions of various...
Membrane proteins evolved to reside in the hydrophobic lipid bilayers of cellular membranes. Therefore, membrane proteins bridge the different aqueous compartments separated by the membrane, and furthermore, dynamically interact with their surroundin...
It is well known that the formation and spatial correlation of lipid domains in the two apposed leaflets of a bilayer are influenced by weak lipid–lipid interactions across the bilayer’s midplane. Transmembrane proteins span through both leaflets and...
Lipid bilayers are natural barriers of biological cells and cellular compartments. Membrane proteins integrated in biological membranes enable vital cell functions such as signal transduction and the transport of ions or small molecules. In order to...
In the pursuit of understanding life, model membranes made of phospholipids were envisaged decades ago as a platform for the bottom-up study of biological processes. Micron-sized lipid vesicles have gained great acceptance as their bilayer membrane r...
Biological membranes mediate several biological processes that are directly associated with their physical properties but sometimes difficult to evaluate. Supported lipid bilayers (SLBs) are model systems widely used to characterize the structure of...
This work presents a novel metal-supported bilayer lipid membrane (BLM) biosensor built on tyrosinase to quantitate phenol. The detection strategy is based on the enzyme–analyte initial association and not the commonly adopted monitoring of the redox...
In Part I, by using 31P-NMR spectroscopy, we have shown that isolated granum and stroma thylakoid membranes (TMs), in addition to the bilayer, display two isotropic phases and an inverted hexagonal (HII) phase; saturation transfer experiments and sel...
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