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Comparative computer simulation study of cholesterol in hydrated unary and binary lipid bilayers and in an anhydrous crystal.

ABSTRACT: Models created with molecular dynamics simulations are used to compare the organization and dynamics of cholesterol (Chol) molecules in three different environments: (1) a hydrated pure Chol bilayer that models the Chol bilayer domain, which is a pure Chol domain embedded in the bulk membrane; (2) a 2-palmitoyl-3-oleoyl-d-glycerol-1-phosphorylcholine bilayer saturated with cholesterol (POPC-Chol50) that models the bulk membrane; (3) a Chol crystal. The computer model of the hydrated pure Chol bilayer is stable on the microsecond time scale. Some structural characteristics of Chol molecules in the Chol bilayer are similar to those in the POPC-Chol50 bilayer (e.g., tilt of Chol rings and chains), while others are similar to those in Chol crystals (e.g., surface area per Chol, bilayer thickness). The key result of this study is that the Chol bilayer has, unexpectedly, a dynamic structure, with Chol mobility similar to that in the POPC-Chol50 bilayer though slower. This is the major difference compared to Chol crystals, where Chol molecules are immobile. Also, water accessibility to Chol-OH groups in the Chol bilayer is not limited. On average, each Chol molecule makes 2.3 hydrogen bonds with water in the Chol bilayer, compared with 1.7 hydrogen bonds in the POPC-Col50 bilayer.

SUBMITTER: Plesnar E

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3767298 | biostudies-literature | 2013 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Comparative computer simulation study of cholesterol in hydrated unary and binary lipid bilayers and in an anhydrous crystal.

Plesnar Elzbieta E Subczynski Witold K WK Pasenkiewicz-Gierula Marta M

The journal of physical chemistry. B 20130712 29

Models created with molecular dynamics simulations are used to compare the organization and dynamics of cholesterol (Chol) molecules in three different environments: (1) a hydrated pure Chol bilayer that models the Chol bilayer domain, which is a pure Chol domain embedded in the bulk membrane; (2) a 2-palmitoyl-3-oleoyl-d-glycerol-1-phosphorylcholine bilayer saturated with cholesterol (POPC-Chol50) that models the bulk membrane; (3) a Chol crystal. The computer model of the hydrated pure Chol bi ...[more]

PMID: 23848956

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Project description:Using a recently developed binary bilayer system (BBS) consisting of two patches of laterally contacting bilayers, umbrella sampling molecular dynamics (MD) simulations were performed for quantitative characterization of protein-lipid interactions. The BBS is composed of 1,2-dilauroyl-sn-glycero-3-phosphocholine (DLPC) and 1,2-dimyristoyl-sn-glycero-3-phosphocholine (DMPC) with an embedded model membrane protein, a gramicidin A (gA) channel. The calculated free energy difference for the transfer of a gA channel from DLPC (hydrophobic thickness ? 21.5 Å) to DMPC (hydrophobic thickness ? 25.5 Å) bilayers, ?G(DLPC ? DMPC), is -2.2 ± 0.7 kcal/mol. This value appears at odds with the traditional view that the hydrophobic length of the gA channel is ?22 Å. To understand this discrepancy, we first note that recent MD simulations by different groups have shown that lipid bilayer thickness profiles in the vicinity of a gA channel differ qualitatively from the deformation profile predicted from continuum elastic bilayer models. Our MD simulations at low and high gA:lipid molar ratios and different membrane compositions indicate that the gA channel's effective hydrophobic length is ?26 Å. Using this effective hydrophobic length, ?G(DLPC ? DMPC) determined here is in excellent agreement with predictions based on continuum elastic models (-3.0 to -2.2 kcal/mol) where the bilayer deformation energy is approximated as a harmonic function of the mismatch between the channel's effective hydrophobic length and the hydrophobic thickness of the bilayer. The free energy profile for gA in the BBS includes a barrier at the interface between the two bilayers which can be attributed to the line tension at the interface between two bilayers with different hydrophobic thicknesses. This observation implies that translation of a peptide between two different regions of a cell membrane (such as between the liquid ordered and disordered phases) may include effects of a barrier at the interface in addition to the relative free energies of the species far from the interface. The BBS allows for direct transfer free energy calculations between bilayers without a need of a reference medium, such as bulk water, and thus provides an efficient simulation protocol for the quantitative characterization of protein-lipid interactions at all-atom resolution.

Project description:Cholesterol trafficking, which is an essential function in mammalian cells, is intimately connected to molecular-scale interactions through cholesterol modulation of membrane structure and dynamics and interaction with membrane receptors. Since these effects of cholesterol occur on micro- to millisecond timescales, it is essential to develop accurate coarse-grained simulation models that can reach these timescales. Cholesterol has been shown experimentally to thicken the membrane and increase phospholipid tail order between 0-40% cholesterol, above which these effects plateau or slightly decrease. Here, we showed that the published MARTINI coarse-grained force-field for phospholipid (POPC) and cholesterol fails to capture these effects. Using reference atomistic simulations, we systematically modified POPC and cholesterol bonded parameters in MARTINI to improve its performance. We showed that the corrections to pseudo-bond angles between glycerol and the lipid tails and around the oleoyl double bond particle (the "angle-corrected model") slightly improves the agreement of MARTINI with experimentally measured thermal, elastic, and dynamic properties of POPC membranes. The angle-corrected model improves prediction of the thickening and ordering effects up to 40% cholesterol but overestimates these effects at higher cholesterol concentration. In accordance with prior work that showed the cholesterol rough face methyl groups are important for limiting cholesterol self-association, we revised the coarse-grained representation of these methyl groups to better match cholesterol-cholesterol radial distribution functions from atomistic simulations. In addition, by using a finer-grained representation of the branched cholesterol tail than MARTINI, we improved predictions of lipid tail order and bilayer thickness across a wide range of concentrations. Finally, transferability testing shows that a model incorporating our revised parameters into DOPC outperforms other CG models in a DOPC/cholesterol simulation series, which further argues for its efficacy and generalizability. These results argue for the importance of systematic optimization for coarse-graining biologically important molecules like cholesterol with complicated molecular structure.

Dataset Information

Comparative computer simulation study of cholesterol in hydrated unary and binary lipid bilayers and in an anhydrous crystal.

Publications

Comparative computer simulation study of cholesterol in hydrated unary and binary lipid bilayers and in an anhydrous crystal.

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