Ion-permeability

Amphotericin B, is a polyene antibiotic, used in the therapy of systemic fungal infections. Its mode of action exploits differences in membrane composition between the pathogen and the human host. Ergosterol, the predominant sterol of fungi, plants, and some protozoan parasites, interacts with Amphotericin B, resulting in an increased ion permeability of the membrane. Humans contain cholesterol, which has a low affinity for amphotericin B. 

FIGURE 6-15 Schematic representation of the ion permeability modulation for cation-responsive voltammetric sensors based on negatively charged lipid membranes. Complexation of the guest cation to the phospholipid receptors causes an increase of the permeability for the anionic marker ion. (Reproduced with permission from reference 49.)... 

Cass A., Finklestein A. Krespi V. (1970) The ion permeability induced in thin lipid membranes by the polyene antibiotics nystatin and amphotericin B. J Gen Physiol, 56, 100-124. 

All four of these helical arrangements could, in principle, provide a channel long enough to span a lipid bilayer and wide enough to permit ion permeability. 

P Burgmayer, RW Murray. An ion gate membrane Electrochemical control of ion permeability through a membrane with an embedded electrode. J Am Chem Soc 104 6139-6140, 1982. 

With disruption of this barrier, molecules such as albumin freely enter the brain and ions and water follow. Because the brain lacks a well-developed lymphatic system, clearance of plasma constituents is slow, edema occurs, and intracranial pressure rises. At lower levels of exposure, subtle dysfunction of the blood-brain barrier may contribute to neurobehavioral deficits in children (Bressler and Goldstein 1991 Goldstein 1993). The particular vulnerability of the fetus and infant to the neurotoxicity of lead may be due in part to immaturity of the blood-brain barrier and to the lack of the high-affinity leadbinding protein in astroglia, which is discussed later in this section. Results of measurements of transendothelial electrical resistance across the blood-brain barrier from mice of various ages showed that lead potentiates cytokines-induced increase in ion permeability of the blood-brain barrier (Dyatlov et al. 

Sol-gel glass is ion-permeable due to its residual hydroxy groups and its porosity, and can be used to optically measure pH by entrapping (caging) conventional pH indicator dyes in the material. Often, water soluble indicator dyes do not have to be chemically modified for immobilisation (see chapter 4) because, due to their size, they are retained in the pores of the sol-gel glass and are not washed out. 

Kagan, B.L., et al., Antimicrobial defensin peptides form voltage-dependent ion-permeable channels in planar lipid bilayer membranes, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U. S.A. 87,1,210,1990. 

Aguilella, V., Belaya, M. and Levadny, V. (1996). Ion permeability of a membrane with soft polar interfaces. 1. The hydrophobic layer as the rate-determining step, Langmuir, 12, 4817 -827. 

K+ channels selectively transport K+ across membranes, hyperpolarize cells, set membrane potentials and control the duration of action potentials, among a myriad of other functions. They use diverse forms of gating, but they all have very similar ion permeabilities. All K+ channels show a selectivity sequence of K+ Rb+ > Cs+, whereas the transport of the smallest alkali metal ions Na+ and Li+ is very slow—typically the permeability for K+ is at least 104 that of Na+. The determination of the X-ray structure of the K+-ion channel has allowed us to understand how it selectively filters completely dehydrated K+ ions, but not the smaller Na+ ions. Not only does this molecular filter select the ions to be transported, but also the electrostatic repulsion between K+ ions, which pass through this molecular filter in Indian file, provides the force to drive the K+ ions rapidly through the channel at a rate of 107-108 per second. (Reviewed in Doyle et al., 1998 MacKinnon, 2004.)... 

The late factors C5 to C9 are responsible for the development of the membrane attack complex (bottom). They create an ion-permeable pore in the bacterial membrane, which leads to lysis of the pathogen. This reaction is triggered by C5 convertase [2]. Depending on the type of complement activation, this enzyme has the structure C4b2o3b or C3bBb3b, and it cleaves C5 into C5a and C5b. The complex of C5b and C6 allows deposition of C7 in the bacterial membrane. C8 and numerous C9 molecules—which form the actual pore—then bind to this core. 

A circuit that uses a differential amplifier to maintain constant membrane potential by electronically balancing the ion channel current. This method allows the experimenter to analyze action potentials of excitable membranes resulting from an initial transient rise in sodium ion permeability followed by a transient rise in potassium ion permeability The technique is especially valuable for studying kinetic properties of voltage-gated channels as well as voltage-dependent channels. See Membrane Potential Patch Clamp Methods... 

Substrate entrapment, retainment, and ion permeabilities are important properties of polymerized SUVs. Indeed, substrates entrapped in polymerized SUVs display much lower leakage rates than those encapsulated in non-polymerized SUVs [158-160, 325, 326]. Selective polymerization allows a fine control of acid and base transport from the bulk solution to the vesicle interiors, or vice versa. These species permeate unpolymerized SUVs almost instantaneously. In partially polymerized SUVs, acid and base transfer occurs on the... 

Murray et al. (2) prepared permeable membranes for selectively removing phosphate, nitrate, and ferric cations by polymerizing and crosslinking with the modified matrix monomer, (bis-acrylamindo-phenanthroline)dinitrate, (IV), to produce an ion permeability substrate. Kulkami et al. (3) selectively removed cobalt cations from solution using 2-hydroxy ethyl methacrylate copolymers,... 

Schematic diagram of the ion permeability changes and transport processes that occur during an action potential and the diastolic period following it. Yellow indicates inward (depolarizing) membrane currents blue indicates outward (repolarizing) membrane currents. Multiple subtypes of potassium and calcium currents, with different sensitivities to blocking drugs, have been identified. The right side of the figure lists the genes and proteins responsible for each type of channel or transporter.

Methods based on the observation of a sudden change in properties in a series of PVCs (e.g., ion permeability, permeability to water vapor, color, gloss stability after coating with a silk-luster paint)... 

We illustrate the coulometric procedure in Figure 17-28, in which the main compartment contains anode solution plus unknown. The smaller compartment at the left has an internal Pt electrode immersed in cathode solution and an external Pt electrode immersed in the anode solution of the main compartment. The two compartments are separated by an ion-permeable membrane. Two Pt electrodes are used for end-point detection. 

How do antibiotics act Some, like penicillin, block specific enzymes. Peptide antibiotics often form complexes with metal ions (Fig. 8-22) and disrupt the control of ion permeability in bacterial membranes. Polyene antibiotics interfere with proton and ion transport in fungal membranes. Tetracyclines and many other antibiotics interfere directly with protein synthesis (Box 29-B). Others intercalate into DNA molecules (Fig. 5-23 Box 28-A). There is no single mode of action. The search for suitable antibiotics for human use consists in finding compounds highly toxic to infective organisms but with low toxicity to human cells. 

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