Because of the many potential medical applications of nanoparticles, considerable research has been conducted on the interactions between nanoparticles and biomembranes. We employed coarse- grained molecular dynamics ...Because of the many potential medical applications of nanoparticles, considerable research has been conducted on the interactions between nanoparticles and biomembranes. We employed coarse- grained molecular dynamics simulations to study the infiltration of lipid-wrapping C60 and polyhy- droxylated single-walled nanotubes. Diffusion coefficients and scaling factors are adopted to quantify the diffusivity of the biomembranes, and the rupture tension is used to measure the lateral strength of the lipid bilayer. According to our simulations, all wrapped nanoparticles, except those wrapped by dipalmitoyl-glycero-phosphoglycerol, can be inserted into the bilayers. Our simulations also re- veal that the bilayers remain in free diffusion after the nanoparticle insertions while their diffusion coefficient can be altered significantly. The polyhydroxylated single-walled nanotubes lead to signif- icant changes to the lateral strength of biomembranes and this effect depends on the quantity of the inserted nanoparticles. The simulations demonstrate the feasibility of using these methods to deliver nanopartieles while some suggestions are given for choosing the appropriate lipids for wrappiug. The results also suggest that the functionalized nanopartieles could be applied in strengthening or weakening the lateral strength of biomembranes for specific purposes.展开更多
文摘Because of the many potential medical applications of nanoparticles, considerable research has been conducted on the interactions between nanoparticles and biomembranes. We employed coarse- grained molecular dynamics simulations to study the infiltration of lipid-wrapping C60 and polyhy- droxylated single-walled nanotubes. Diffusion coefficients and scaling factors are adopted to quantify the diffusivity of the biomembranes, and the rupture tension is used to measure the lateral strength of the lipid bilayer. According to our simulations, all wrapped nanoparticles, except those wrapped by dipalmitoyl-glycero-phosphoglycerol, can be inserted into the bilayers. Our simulations also re- veal that the bilayers remain in free diffusion after the nanoparticle insertions while their diffusion coefficient can be altered significantly. The polyhydroxylated single-walled nanotubes lead to signif- icant changes to the lateral strength of biomembranes and this effect depends on the quantity of the inserted nanoparticles. The simulations demonstrate the feasibility of using these methods to deliver nanopartieles while some suggestions are given for choosing the appropriate lipids for wrappiug. The results also suggest that the functionalized nanopartieles could be applied in strengthening or weakening the lateral strength of biomembranes for specific purposes.
