Interactions of Fullerene (C60) and its Hydroxyl Derivatives with Lipid Bilayer: A Coarse-Grained Molecular Dynamics Simulation

Coarse-grained molecular dynamic simulations were employed to study the interactions of fullerene (C₆₀) and its hydroxyl derivatives (C₆₀(OH)_n, n?=?4, 5, 6, 8, 12, and 16) with a lipid bilayer composed of dipalmitoylphosphatidylcholine molecules. It was found that the C₆₀ moves towards the center of the bilayer and laid between central and peripheral regions of the bilayer. The potential mean force was calculated to estimate free energy profile when pulling the fullerene from its initial position to the center of the bilayer using an umbrella sampling method. Results showed that the hydrophobic region of the membrane acts as a barrier to transport a nonpolar C₆₀ molecule through the bilayer. This makes a deep minimum in the free energy profile between the center and head regions of membrane. Various numbers of polar functional groups (–OH) were then used to make derivatives of fullerene and change the hydrophilic of the molecule. It was found that optimal number of hydroxyl groups to facilitate the transportation of C₆₀(OH)_n through the bilayer is 4.