Molecular interactions of quinidine with phospholipid bilayers.

Quinidine (QUIN) is one of the most important and efficient antiarrhythmic drugs (AAD). It belongs to class I, which are the drugs that exert their action at the level of the sodium channels in the membrane of the myocard. Several hypotheses support the idea that the molecular mechanism of action of the AAD is via nonspecific interactions with phospholipids sited in the neighborhood of the channels. In order to probe the validity of these hypotheses, QUIN was made to interact with the phospholipids dimyristoylphosphadidylcholine (DMPC) and dimyristoylphosphatidylethanolamine (DMPE). These interactions were performed in a hydrophobic and a hydrophilic medium under a wide range of molar ratios. The resulting products were analyzed by X-ray diffraction. QUIN solutions were also made to interact with DMPC liposomes, which were studied by fluorescent spectroscopy. Finally, human erythrocytes which were incubated with QUIN solutions were observed by scanning electron microscopy. The results of these experiments proved that QUIN indeed interacted with phospholipid bilayers.