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Alteration of lipid bilayer mechanics by volatile anesthetics: Insights from μs-long molecular dynamics simulations.

ABSTRACT: Very few drugs in clinical practice feature the chemical diversity, narrow therapeutic window, unique route of administration, and reversible cognitive effects of volatile anesthetics. The correlation between their hydrophobicity and their potency and the increasing amount of evidence suggesting that anesthetics exert their action on transmembrane proteins, justifies the investigation of their effects on phospholipid bilayers at the molecular level, given the strong functional and structural link between transmembrane proteins and the surrounding lipid matrix. Molecular dynamics simulations of a model lipid bilayer in the presence of ethylene, desflurane, methoxyflurane, and the nonimmobilizer 1,2-dichlorohexafluorocyclobutane (also called F6 or 2N) at different concentrations highlight the structural consequences of VA partitioning in the lipid phase, with a decrease of lipid order and bilayer thickness, an increase in overall lipid lateral mobility and area-per-lipid, and a marked reduction in the mechanical stiffness of the membrane, that strongly correlates with the compounds' hydrophobicity.

SUBMITTER: Zizzi EA

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8898909 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Alteration of lipid bilayer mechanics by volatile anesthetics: Insights from μs-long molecular dynamics simulations.

Zizzi Eric A EA Cavaglià Marco M Tuszynski Jack A JA Deriu Marco A MA

iScience 20220218 3

Very few drugs in clinical practice feature the chemical diversity, narrow therapeutic window, unique route of administration, and reversible cognitive effects of volatile anesthetics. The correlation between their hydrophobicity and their potency and the increasing amount of evidence suggesting that anesthetics exert their action on transmembrane proteins, justifies the investigation of their effects on phospholipid bilayers at the molecular level, given the strong functional and structural lin ...[more]

PMID: 35265816

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Dataset Information

Alteration of lipid bilayer mechanics by volatile anesthetics: Insights from μs-long molecular dynamics simulations.

Publications

Alteration of lipid bilayer mechanics by volatile anesthetics: Insights from μs-long molecular dynamics simulations.

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