Lipids are a broad group of organic compounds which include fats, waxes, sterols, fat-soluble vitamins, monoglycerides, diglycerides, phospholipids, and others. The functions of lipids include storing energy, signaling, and acting as structural components of cell membranes. Lipids have applications in the cosmetic and food industries, and in nanotechnology.
A detergent is a surfactant or a mixture of surfactants with cleansing properties when in dilute solutions. There are a large variety of detergents, a common family being the alkylbenzene sulfonates, which are soap-like compounds that are more soluble in hard water, because the polar sulfonate is less likely than the polar carboxylate to bind to calcium and other ions found in hard water.
Surfactants are chemical compounds that decrease the surface tension or interfacial tension between two liquids, a liquid and a gas, or a liquid and a solid. The word "surfactant" is a blend of surface-active agent, coined c. 1950. As they consist of a water-repellent and a water-attracting part, they enable water and oil to mix; they can form foam and facilitate the detachment of dirt.
A transmembrane protein is a type of integral membrane protein that spans the entirety of the cell membrane. Many transmembrane proteins function as gateways to permit the transport of specific substances across the membrane. They frequently undergo significant conformational changes to move a substance through the membrane. They are usually highly hydrophobic and aggregate and precipitate in water. They require detergents or nonpolar solvents for extraction, although some of them (beta-barrels) can be also extracted using denaturing agents.
Peripheral membrane proteins, or extrinsic membrane proteins, are membrane proteins that adhere only temporarily to the biological membrane with which they are associated. These proteins attach to integral membrane proteins, or penetrate the peripheral regions of the lipid bilayer. The regulatory protein subunits of many ion channels and transmembrane receptors, for example, may be defined as peripheral membrane proteins. In contrast to integral membrane proteins, peripheral membrane proteins tend to collect in the water-soluble component, or fraction, of all the proteins extracted during a protein purification procedure. Proteins with GPI anchors are an exception to this rule and can have purification properties similar to those of integral membrane proteins.
A micelle or micella is an aggregate of surfactant amphipathic lipid molecules dispersed in a liquid, forming a colloidal suspension. A typical micelle in water forms an aggregate with the hydrophilic "head" regions in contact with surrounding solvent, sequestering the hydrophobic single-tail regions in the micelle centre.
n-Octyl β-d-thioglucopyranoside is a mild nonionic detergent that is used for cell lysis or to solubilise membrane proteins without denaturing them. This is particularly of use in order to crystallise them or to reconstitute them into lipid bilayers. It has a critical micelle concentration of 9 mM.
Polymyxins are antibiotics. Polymyxins B and E are used in the treatment of Gram-negative bacterial infections. They work mostly by breaking up the bacterial cell membrane. They are part of a broader class of molecules called nonribosomal peptides.
Antimicrobial peptides (AMPs), also called host defence peptides (HDPs) are part of the innate immune response found among all classes of life. Fundamental differences exist between prokaryotic and eukaryotic cells that may represent targets for antimicrobial peptides. These peptides are potent, broad spectrum antimicrobials which demonstrate potential as novel therapeutic agents. Antimicrobial peptides have been demonstrated to kill Gram negative and Gram positive bacteria, enveloped viruses, fungi and even transformed or cancerous cells. Unlike the majority of conventional antibiotics it appears that antimicrobial peptides frequently destabilize biological membranes, can form transmembrane channels, and may also have the ability to enhance immunity by functioning as immunomodulators.
An amphiphile, or amphipath, is a chemical compound possessing both hydrophilic and lipophilic (fat-loving) properties. Such a compound is called amphiphilic or amphipathic. Amphiphilic compounds include surfactants and detergents. The phospholipid amphiphiles are the major structural component of cell membranes.
Dipalmitoylphosphatidylcholine (DPPC) is a phospholipid (and a lecithin) consisting of two C16 palmitic acid groups attached to a phosphatidylcholine head-group.
Polymorphism in biophysics is the ability of lipids to aggregate in a variety of ways, giving rise to structures of different shapes, known as "phases". This can be in the form of spheres of lipid molecules (micelles), pairs of layers that face one another, a tubular arrangement (hexagonal), or various cubic phases. More complicated aggregations have also been observed, such as rhombohedral, tetragonal and orthorhombic phases.
Biosurfactant usually refers to surfactants of microbial origin. Most of the biosurfactants produced by microbes are synthesized extracellularly and many microbes are known to produce biosurfactants in large relative quantities. Some are of commercial interest. As a secondary metabolite of microorganisms, biosurfactants can be processed by the cultivation of biosurfactant producing microorganisms in the stationary phase on many sorts of low-priced substrates like biochar, plant oils, carbohydrates, wastes, etc. High-level production of biosurfactants can be controlled by regulation of environmental factors and growth circumstances.
A lipopeptide is a molecule consisting of a lipid connected to a peptide. They are able to self-assemble into different structures. Many bacteria produce these molecules as a part of their metabolism, especially those of the genus Bacillus, Pseudomonas and Streptomyces. Certain lipopeptides are used as antibiotics. Due to the structural and molecular properties such as the fatty acid chain, it poses the effect of weakening the cell function or destroying the cell. Other lipopeptides are toll-like receptor agonists. Certain lipopeptides can have strong antifungal and hemolytic activities. It has been demonstrated that their activity is generally linked to interactions with the plasma membrane, and sterol components of the plasma membrane could play a major role in this interaction. It is a general trend that adding a lipid group of a certain length to a lipopeptide will increase its bactericidal activity. Lipopeptides with a higher amount of carbon atoms, for example 14 or 16, in its lipid tail will typically have antibacterial activity as well as anti-fungal activity. Therefore, an increase in the alkyl chain can make lipopeptides soluble in water. As well, it opens the cell membrane of the bacteria, so antimicrobial activity can take place.
A nanodisc is a synthetic model membrane system which assists in the study of membrane proteins. Nanodiscs are discoidal proteins in which a lipid bilayer is surrounded by molecules that are amphipathic molecules including proteins, peptides, and synthetic polymers. It is composed of a lipid bilayer of phospholipids with the hydrophobic edge screened by two amphipathic proteins. These proteins are called membrane scaffolding proteins (MSP) and align in double belt formation. Nanodiscs are structurally very similar to discoidal high-density lipoproteins (HDL) and the MSPs are modified versions of apolipoprotein A1 (apoA1), the main constituent in HDL. Nanodiscs are useful in the study of membrane proteins because they can solubilise and stabilise membrane proteins and represent a more native environment than liposomes, detergent micelles, bicelles and amphipols.
Octyl glucoside is a nonionic surfactant frequently used to solubilise integral membrane proteins for studies in biochemistry. Structurally, it is a glycoside derived from glucose and octanol. Like Genapol X-100 and Triton X-100, it is a nonphysiological amphiphile that makes lipid bilayers less "stiff".
Peptide amphiphiles (PAs) are peptide-based molecules that self-assemble into supramolecular nanostructures including; spherical micelles, twisted ribbons, and high-aspect-ratio nanofibers. A peptide amphiphile typically comprises a hydrophilic peptide sequence attached to a lipid tail, i.e. a hydrophobic alkyl chain with 10 to 16 carbons. Therefore, they can be considered a type of lipopeptide. A special type of PA, is constituted by alternating charged and neutral residues, in a repeated pattern, such as RADA16-I. The PAs were developed in the 1990s and the early 2000s and could be used in various medical areas including: nanocarriers, nanodrugs, and imaging agents. However, perhaps their main potential is in regenerative medicine to culture and deliver cells and growth factors.
Lamellar phase refers generally to packing of polar-headed long chain nonpolar-tail molecules in an environment of bulk polar liquid, as sheets of bilayers separated by bulk liquid. In biophysics, polar lipids pack as a liquid crystalline bilayer, with hydrophobic fatty acyl long chains directed inwardly and polar headgroups of lipids aligned on the outside in contact with water, as a 2-dimensional flat sheet surface. Under transmission electron microscope (TEM), after staining with polar headgroup reactive chemical osmium tetroxide, lamellar lipid phase appears as two thin parallel dark staining lines/sheets, constituted by aligned polar headgroups of lipids. 'Sandwiched' between these two parallel lines, there exists one thicker line/sheet of non-staining closely packed layer of long lipid fatty acyl chains. This TEM-appearance became famous as Robertson's unit membrane - the basis of all biological membranes, and structure of lipid bilayer in unilamellar liposomes. In multilamellar liposomes, many such lipid bilayer sheets are layered concentrically with water layers in between.
Mycosubtilin is a natural lipopeptide with antifungal and hemolytic activities and isolated from Bacillus species. It belongs to the iturin lipopeptide family.
A proteolipid is a protein covalently linked to lipid molecules, which can be fatty acids, isoprenoids or sterols. The process of such a linkage is known as protein lipidation, and falls into the wider category of acylation and post-translational modification. Proteolipids are abundant in brain tissue, and are also present in many other animal and plant tissues. They include ghrelin, a peptide hormone associated with feeding. Many proteolipids are composed of proteins covalenently bound to fatty acid chains, often granting them an interface for interacting with biological membranes. They are not to be confused with lipoproteins, a kind of spherical assembly made up of many molecules of lipids and some apolipoproteins.
