Cholesterol-based anchors and tethers for phospholipid bilayers and for model biological membranes
This review covers the range of cholesterol-based anchors and tethers and the ways in which they are being used. These cholesterol conjugates provide us with a very flexible 'tool-box' that can be used to tether phospholipid bilayers to surfaces, to join bilayers together (bilayer-to-bilay...
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| Published in | Soft matter Vol. 6; no. 24; pp. 636 - 651 |
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| Main Authors | , , |
| Format | Journal Article |
| Language | English |
| Published |
01.01.2010
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| Online Access | Get full text |
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| Summary: | This review covers the range of cholesterol-based anchors and tethers and the ways in which they are being used. These cholesterol conjugates provide us with a very flexible 'tool-box' that can be used to tether phospholipid bilayers to surfaces, to join bilayers together (bilayer-to-bilayer, bilayer-to-vesicle, vesicle-to-vesicle,
etc.
) or to anchor molecules, biomolecules, macromolecules or particulate species to the surface of the bilayer. Model biomembranes tethered to a solid support provide a stable platform for addressing membrane components
in vitro
using force field and spectroscopic methods and since these membranes generally remain fluid and retain much of their biological activity, solid-supported membranes can also be use to study aspects of membrane biology and biochemistry. Potential medical applications are developing out of our ability to anchor 'markers' and antibodies to phospholipid vesicles. Compared to anchors in which the anchoring group is a phospholipid (or phospholipid-like) moiety, cholesterol-based anchors are generally easier to make and purify but the anchoring is less strong and this can be an issue when the 'payload' is large and water-soluble. In the case of nucleic acid functionalised systems this problem has been addressed by anchoring each oligonucleotide through two cholesteryl end-groups.
In this review we discuss the range of cholesterol-based anchors and tethers used to tether phospholipid bilayers to solid substrates, to join bilayers together or to anchor molecules, biomolecules, macromolecules or particulate species to the surface of the bilayer. |
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| Bibliography: | Graduated in Physics from Queen Mary College London and obtained his PhD at Lancaster University. He subsequently undertook postdoctoral work at Imperial College London and was a visiting Scientist at Eastman Kodak, Rochester. In 1991 he moved to the School of Physics and Astronomy, at the University of Leeds where he became Professor of Molecular and Nanoscale Physics in 2002. His main research areas have been in self-assembled monolayers for application in: biomembranes, nanostructured materials and surface controlled anchoring of liquid crystals. Graduation in Chemistry from Imperial College London and a DPhil at Oxford University were followed by postdoctoral work at Queen Mary College London and at Yale. In 1970 Richard Bushby moved to the Organic Chemistry Department at the University of Leeds where he eventually became Professor of Physical Organic Chemistry. In 2000 he become Director of the multidisciplinary CMNS (previously SOMS) Centre but is now semi-retired. His main research areas have been in discotic liquid crystals, model biomembranes and high-spin organics. Masters degree from Mangalore University in 2001 was followed by an industrial experience at Biocon, Bangalore, India for two years. Later A. S. Achalkumar pursued his PhD studies with Dr C. V. Yelamaggad at CLCR, Bangalore in the area of liquid crystals. In 2007 he moved to CMNS, University of Leeds to work on model biomembranes and photopatternable SAMs with Prof. R. J. Bushby for two years. At present he is working with Dr Y. Ishida and Prof. T. Aida in RIKEN, Japan on the development of liquid crystal reaction media and chiral molecular imprinted polymers. |
| ISSN: | 1744-683X 1744-6848 |
| DOI: | 10.1039/c0sm00030b |