Lipid membranes hydrogen bonding

Ma M, GongY, Bong D. Lipid membrane adhesion and fusion driven by designed, minimally multivalent hydrogen-bonding lipids. Am Chem Soc 2009 131 16919-26. 

In series with a desolvation energy barrier required to disrupt aqueous solute hydrogen bonds [14], the lipid bilayer offers a practically impermeable barrier to hydrophilic solutes. It follows that significant transepithelial transport of water-soluble molecules must be conducted paracellularly or mediated by solute translocation via specific integral membrane proteins (Fig. 6). Transcellular permeability of lipophilic solutes depends on their solubility in GI membrane lipids relative to their aqueous solubility. This lumped parameter, membrane permeability,... 

Fig. 8 Proposed model for gramicidin S in a membrane according to the orientational constraints obtained from and N-NMR. The upright backbone alignment (r 80°) and slant of the /3-sheets (p -45°) are compatible with the formation of an oligomeric /3-barrel that is stabilized by hydrogen bonds (dotted lines). A The oligomer is depicted sideways from within the lipid bilayer interior (showing only backbone atoms for clarity, but with hydrophobic side chains added to one of the monomers). Atomic coordinates of GS were taken from a monomeric structure [4], and the two DMPC lipid molecules are drawn to scale (from a molecular dynamics simulation coordinate file). The bilayer cross-section is coloured yellow in its hydrophobic core, red in the amphiphilic regions, and light blue near the aqueous surface. B Illustrates a top view of the putative pore, although the number of monomers remains speculative...

Use of a hydrocarbon solvent such as cyclohexane can discriminate these compounds either as the only measured value or as a value to be subtracted from the octanol value (Alog P) [19-21]. Unfortunately, cyclohexane is a poor solvent for many compounds and does not have the utility of octanol. Groups which hydrogen bond and attenuate actual membrane crossing compared to their predicted ability based on octanol are listed in Figure 1.4. The presence of two or more amide, carboxyl functions in a molecule will significantly impact on membrane crossing ability and will need substantial intrinsic lipophilicity in other functions to provide sufficient hydrophobicity to penetrate the lipid core of the membrane. 

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