Diffusion of gases across lipid membranes with OmpA channel: a molecular dynamics study

Molecular transport across biological membranes occurs in a range of important chemical and biological processes. The biological membrane can usually be modelled as a phospholipid bilayer, but to correctly represent biological transport, the embedded transmembrane proteins must also be included. In previous molecular simulation studies on transport of small gas molecules in dipalmitoylphosphatidylcholine (DPPC) bilayer membrane, a coarse-grained model was used to provide direct insight into collective phenomena in biological membranes. Coarse graining allowed investigation of longer time and length scales by reducing the degrees of freedom and employing suitable potentials. In this work, membranes that include transmembrane proteins are modelled. This allows one to compare the molecular transport across a lipid membrane with and without the assistance of transmembrane channels. Outer membrane protein A (OmpA) – a porin from Escherichia coli with a small pore size – was chosen in this study because its detailed structure is known, it has high stability and is known to form a nonspecific diffusion channel that permits the penetration of various solutes. In this work the pore characteristics and interaction between lipid and protein were investigated and transport of water and other small gas molecules within the channel were studied. The MD simulation results obtained are compared with previous simulation results and available experimental data. The results obtained from this study will lead to better understanding of protein functionality and advance the development of biochips and drug delivery systems.     

Proteins, lipids, and water in the gas phase

Evidence from mass‐spectrometry experiments and molecular dynamics simulations suggests that it is possible to transfer proteins, or in general biomolecular aggregates, from solution to the gas‐phase without grave impact on the structure. If correct, this allows interpretation of such experiments as a probe of physiological behavior. Here, we survey recent experimental results from mass spectrometry and ion‐mobility spectroscopy and combine this with observations based on molecular dynamics simulation, in order to give a comprehensive overview of the state of the art in gas‐phase studies. We introduce a new concept in protein structure analysis by determining the fraction of the theoretical possible numbers of hydrogen bonds that are formed in solution and in the gas‐phase. In solution on average 43% of the hydrogen bonds is realized, while in vacuo this fraction increases to 56%. The hydrogen bonds stabilizing the secondary structure (α‐helices, β‐sheets) are maintained to a large degree, with additional hydrogen bonds occurring when side chains make new hydrogen bonds to rest of the protein rather than to solvent. This indicates that proteins that are transported to the gas phase in a native‐like manner in many cases will be kinetically trapped in near‐physiological structures. Simulation results for lipid‐ and detergent‐aggregates and lipid‐coated (membrane) proteins in the gas phase are discussed, which in general point to the conclusion that encapsulating proteins in “something” aids in the conservation of native‐like structure. Isolated solvated micelles of cetyl‐tetraammonium bromide quickly turn into reverse micelles whereas dodecyl phosphocholine micelles undergo much slower conversions, and do not quite reach a reverse micelle conformation within 100 ns.