Lipids designer Upids

Since Upids are known to associate with DNA with high affinity, the adsorption of ssDNA at lipid membranes as a medium for DNA incorporation on a GC surface was extensively studied [60]. Exploiting DNA-Upid interactions, various approaches were designed for the incorporation of ssDNA [61] and dsDNA [62] at a modified bilayer lipid membrane (BLM) GC surface, such as (1) the formation of self-assembled BLMs over ssDNA previously adsorbed on GC, (2) the direct adsorption of ss- and dsDNA [62] into a previously BLM-modified GC and, (3) formation of a BLM with incorporated ssDNA at the GC surface using the monolayer folding technique [61]. 

Continuing the theme of self-assembled nanoparticles, Robinson and coworkers have implemented a slightly different approach to form SVLPs. Their building block consists of a Upid conjugated to a coiled-coil peptide that is designed to form trimers. The rationale is that the coiled coils will self-assemble into parallel trimeric bundles, and the lipids will then drive further self-assembly of these trimeric bundles into nanosized SVLPs with the lipids buried and the C-termini of the coiled coils exposed (Figure 20a and b). The presence of regularly... 

In Fig. 22, three typical types of DSC curves are shown for the DMPE-water system at the same water content. A distinct difference in the thermal behavior is observed not only for the phase transition of the Upid but also for the melting of the ice. Figure 23 shows a schematic diagram of relative enthalpy (AH) versus temperature (t) curves that was constructed on the basis of the transition enthalpies and temperatures associated with the lipid phase transitions shown in Fig. 22. By reference to the diagram, it becomes apparent that the DMPE-water system can be present in two phases, designated the L- and //-subgel phases, other than the gel phase at temperatures where the hydrocarbon chains of the lipids are in a solid-like state and the thermodynamic stability of these phases increases... 

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