Rimantadine effects on the elasticity of bilayer lipid membranes and on ion transport through gramicidin D channels.

The effect of the antiviral preparation rimantadine on lipid bilayer membranes (BLM) was studied by measuring the modulus of elasticity in the direction normal to the surface (E perpendicular) and by estimating the conductance lambda, the lifetime tau of single gramicidin D channels (GRD), and the coefficient of nonlinearity beta of current voltage characteristics (IVC) of GRD-modified BLM. Rimantadine induced a nonmonotonic change in E perpendicular of BLM prepared from a mixture of egg lecithin with cholesterol: at relatively low rimantadine concentrations (0-40 micrograms/ml) E perpendicular first increased, reached a maximum and started to decrease. The effectivity of rimantadine was dependent on the cholesterol concentration in the BLM. Changes in E perpendicular suggest an increased ordering of the lipid bilayer at low rimantadine concentrations and formation of clusters of the preparation at concentrations exceeding those necessary to obtain maximal values of E perpendicular for the given BLM lipid composition. Rimantadine concentrations lifetime by approximately 20 percent, affected the degree of IVC nonlinearity and superlinearity of GRD-modified membranes, which suggests some effect on the height of the barrier at the ionic channel mouth and in its centre.