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Title: Why Do Membranes of Some Unhealthy Cells Adopt a Cubic Architecture?

Journal Article · · ACS Central Science
ORCiD logo [1];  [2];  [3];  [4]; ORCiD logo [4];  [4];  [4];  [5];  [6];  [7];  [7];  [8];  [8];  [9]; ORCiD logo [4]
  1. Univ. of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA (United States). Roy & Diana Vagelos Laboratories, Department of Chemistry
  2. Univ. of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA (United States). Department of Bioengineering
  3. Univ. of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA (United States). Electron Microscopy Resource Laboratory, Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics, Perelman School of Medicine
  4. Univ. of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA (United States). Roy & Diana Vagelos Laboratories, Department of Chemistry
  5. Univ. of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA (United States). Department of Bioengineering and Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering
  6. Univ. of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA (United States). Department of Physics and Astronomy
  7. Univ. of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI (United States). Division of Infectious Diseases, Department of Internal Medicine, Program in Immunology
  8. Ludwig-Maximilians-University, Munich (Germany). Institute of Physiological Chemistry, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine
  9. Temple University, Philadelphia, PA (United States). Institute of Computational Molecular Science

Nonlamellar lipid arrangements, including cubosomes, appear in unhealthy cells, e.g., when they are subject to stress, starvation, or viral infection. The bioactivity of cubosomes—nanoscale particles exhibiting bicontinuous cubic structures—versus more common vesicles is an unexplored area due to lack of suitable model systems. Here, glycodendrimercubosomes (GDCs)—sugar-presenting cubosomes assembled from Janus glycodendrimers by simple injection into buffer—are proposed as mimics of biological cubic membranes. The bicontinuous cubic GDC architecture has been demonstrated by electron tomography. The stability of these GDCs in buffer enabled studies on lectin-dependent agglutination, revealing significant differences compared with the vesicular glycodendrimersome (GDS) counterpart. In particular, GDCs showed an increased activity toward concanavalin A, as well as an increased sensitivity and selectivity toward two variants of banana lectins, a wild-type and a genetically modified variant, which is not exhibited by GDSs. These results suggest that cells may adapt under unhealthy conditions by undergoing a transformation from lamellar to cubic membranes as a method of defense.

Research Organization:
Univ. of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES) (SC-22). Materials Sciences & Engineering Division
Grant/Contract Number:
SC0007063
OSTI ID:
1425620
Journal Information:
ACS Central Science, Vol. 2, Issue 12; ISSN 2374-7943
Publisher:
American Chemical Society (ACS)Copyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 32 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

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Cited By (10)

Encapsulation of hydrophobic components in dendrimersomes and decoration of their surface with proteins and nucleic acids text January 2019
Encoding biological recognition in a bicomponent cell-membrane mimic text January 2019
Exploring functional pairing between surface glycoconjugates and human galectins using programmable glycodendrimersomes journal January 2018
Encapsulation of hydrophobic components in dendrimersomes and decoration of their surface with proteins and nucleic acids journal July 2019
Encoding biological recognition in a bicomponent cell-membrane mimic journal February 2019
From glycophenotyping by (plant) lectin histochemistry to defining functionality of glycans by pairing with endogenous lectins journal May 2018
Branching pattern effect and co-assembly with lipids of amphiphilic Janus dendrimersomes journal January 2018
The stabilization of primitive bicontinuous cubic phases with tunable swelling over a wide composition range journal January 2019
Silica cubosomes templated by a star polymer journal January 2019
Bioactive cell-like hybrids from dendrimersomes with a human cell membrane and its components journal December 2018