Luchini Alessandra, Vitiello Giuseppe
Niels Bohr Institute, University of Copenhagen, Universitetsparken 5, 2100 Copenhagen, Denmark.
Department of Chemical, Materials and Production Engineering, University of Naples Federico II, Piazzale Tecchio 80, 80125 Naples, Italy.
Biomimetics (Basel). 2020 Dec 31;6(1):3. doi: 10.3390/biomimetics6010003.
Cell membranes are very complex biological systems including a large variety of lipids and proteins. Therefore, they are difficult to extract and directly investigate with biophysical methods. For many decades, the characterization of simpler biomimetic lipid membranes, which contain only a few lipid species, provided important physico-chemical information on the most abundant lipid species in cell membranes. These studies described physical and chemical properties that are most likely similar to those of real cell membranes. Indeed, biomimetic lipid membranes can be easily prepared in the lab and are compatible with multiple biophysical techniques. Lipid phase transitions, the bilayer structure, the impact of cholesterol on the structure and dynamics of lipid bilayers, and the selective recognition of target lipids by proteins, peptides, and drugs are all examples of the detailed information about cell membranes obtained by the investigation of biomimetic lipid membranes. This review focuses specifically on the advances that were achieved during the last decade in the field of biomimetic lipid membranes mimicking the mammalian plasma membrane. In particular, we provide a description of the most common types of lipid membrane models used for biophysical characterization, i.e., lipid membranes in solution and on surfaces, as well as recent examples of their applications for the investigation of protein-lipid and drug-lipid interactions. Altogether, promising directions for future developments of biomimetic lipid membranes are the further implementation of natural lipid mixtures for the development of more biologically relevant lipid membranes, as well as the development of sample preparation protocols that enable the incorporation of membrane proteins in the biomimetic lipid membranes.
细胞膜是非常复杂的生物系统，包含各种各样的脂质和蛋白质。因此，它们很难提取并用生物物理方法直接研究。几十年来，对仅包含少数脂质种类的更简单的仿生脂质膜的表征，提供了关于细胞膜中最丰富脂质种类的重要物理化学信息。这些研究描述的物理和化学性质很可能与真实细胞膜的性质相似。实际上，仿生脂质膜可以在实验室中轻松制备，并且与多种生物物理技术兼容。脂质相变、双层结构、胆固醇对脂质双层结构和动力学的影响，以及蛋白质、肽和药物对靶脂质的选择性识别，都是通过对仿生脂质膜的研究获得的有关细胞膜详细信息的例子。本综述特别关注过去十年在模仿哺乳动物质膜的仿生脂质膜领域所取得的进展。特别是，我们描述了用于生物物理表征的最常见类型的脂质膜模型，即溶液中和表面上的脂质膜，以及它们用于研究蛋白质 - 脂质和药物 - 脂质相互作用的最新应用实例。总之，仿生脂质膜未来发展的有前景的方向是进一步采用天然脂质混合物来开发更具生物学相关性的脂质膜，以及开发能够将膜蛋白掺入仿生脂质膜的样品制备方案。
