Lateral distribution of gangliosides in bilayer membranes: lipid and ionic effects

Identification of possible binding modes of SARS-CoV-2 spike N-terminal domain for ganglioside GM1

Coarse-grained molecular dynamics simulations of the lipid bilayer mixture of POPC and cholesterol were carried out in the presence and absence of ganglioside monosialo 1 (GM1) with N - terminal domain (NTD) of SARS-CoV-2 spike glycoprotein. The interactions of GM1 with two different NTD orientations were compared. NTD orientation I compactly bind GM1 predominantly through the sialic acid and the external galactose moieties providing more restriction to GM1 mobility whereas orientation II is more distributed on the lipid surface and due to the relaxed mobility of GM1 there, presumably, the NTD receptor penetrates more through the membrane.

Membrane destabilization by ricin

Ricin is a promising candidate for the treatment of cancer because it can be selectively targeted to tumor cells via linkage to monoclonal antibodies. Biochemical evidence suggests that escape of ricin or its ribosome-inactivating subunit from an intracellular compartment is mediated by retrograde transport to the endoplasmic reticulum and subsequent direction into the ER-associated degradation pathway. Alternatively, lipase activity of ricin may facilitate leakage from endocytic vesicles. We have observed ricin-mediated release of macromolecular dyes from lipid vesicles that mimic the composition of endosomal membranes. Release of small molecules occurs to the same extent, suggesting an all-or-none mechanism due to bilayer destabilization. The level of accompanying membrane fusion depends on vesicle composition. Since it takes 24 h of incubation before the first traces of lysolipids are detectable by matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization mass spectrometry, membrane destabilization is not due to the lipase activity of ricin.

Rafts, little caves and large potholes: how lipid structure interacts with membrane proteins to create functionally diverse membrane environments

This chapter reviews how diverse lipid microdomains form in the membrane and partition proteins into different functional units that regulate cell trafficking, signalling and movement. We will concentrate upon five major issues: 1. the diversity of lipid structure that produces diverse microenvironments into which different subsets of proteins partition; 2. why ordered lipid domains exclude proteins, and the conditions required for select subsets of proteins to enter these domains; 3. the coupling of the inner and outer leaflets within ordered microdomains; 4. the effect of ordered lipid domains upon membrane properties including curvature and hydrophobicity that affect membrane fission, fusion and extension of filopodia; 5. the biological effects of these structural constraints; in particular how the properties of these domains combine to provide a very different signalling, trafficking and membrane fusion environment to that found in disordered (fluid mosaic) membrane. In addressing these problems, the review draws upon studies ranging from molecular dynamic modelling of lipid interactions, through physical studies of model membrane systems to structural and biological studies of whole cells, examining in the process problems inherent in visualising and purifying these microdomains. While the diversity of structure and function of ordered lipid microdomains is emphasised, some general roles emerge. In particular, the basis for having quite different, non-interacting ordered lipid domains on the same membrane is evident in the diversity of lipid structure and plays a key role in sorting signalling systems. The exclusion of ordered membrane from coated pits, and hence rapid endocytosis, is suggested to underlie the ability of highly ordered domains to establish stable secondary signalling systems required, for instance, in T cell receptor, insulin and neurotrophin signalling.

New EPR method for cellular surface characterization

An electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR)-based membrane surface characterization method is presented to detect the properties of the carbohydrate-rich part of membrane surfaces as well as carbohydrate interaction with other membrane constituents and water-soluble molecules. The proposed method relies on the spin-labeling and spectral decomposition based on spectral simulation and optimization with EPRSIM software. In order to increase the sensitivity of characterization to the carbohydrate-rich part of the membrane surface, the sucrose-contrasting approach is introduced. With this method, which was established on model membranes with glycolipids and tested on erythrocyte membrane, we were able to characterize the surface and lipid bilayer lateral heterogeneity. Additionally, some properties of the interaction between glycocalyx and lipid bilayer as well as between glycocalyx and sucrose molecules were determined. The experiments also provided some information about the anchoring and aggregation of the glycosylated molecules. According to the results, some functions of the glycosylated surface are discussed.

Dehydration of model membranes induced by lectins from Ricinus communis and Viscum album

The effects of ribosome-inactivating proteins (RIPs) from Ricinus communis and from Viscum album on the water permeability, Pf, and the surface dielectric constant, epsilon, of model membranes were studied. Pf was calculated from microelectrode measurements of the ion concentration distribution in the immediate vicinity of a planar membrane, and epsilon was obtained from the fluorescence of dansyl phosphatidylethanolamine incorporated into unilamellar vesicles. Pf and epsilon of fully saturated phosphatidylcholine membranes were affected only in the presence of a lectin receptor (monosialoganglioside, GM1) in the bilayer. It is suggested that the membrane area occupied by clustered lectin-receptor complexes is markedly less permeable to water. Protein binding to the receptor was not a prelude for hydrophobic lipid-protein interactions when the membranes were formed from a mixture of natural phospholipids with a high content of unsaturated fatty acids. These membranes, characterized by a high initial water permeability, were found to interact with the RIPs unspecifically. From a decrease of both Pf and epsilon it was concluded that not only water partitioning but also protein adsorption correlates with looser packing of polyunsaturated lipids at the lipid-water interface.

Sphingolipid organization in biomembranes: what physical studies of model membranes reveal

Recent cell biological studies suggest that sphingolipids and cholesterol may cluster in biomembranes to form raft-like microdomains. Such lipid domains are postulated to function as platforms involved in the lateral sorting of certain proteins during their trafficking within cells as well as during signal transduction events. Here, the physical interactions that occur between cholesterol and sphingolipids in model membrane systems are discussed within the context of microdomain formation. A model is presented in which the role of cholesterol is refined compared to earlier models.

The effect of mixed bovine brain gangliosides on hypoxic conduction block in control and streptozotocin-diabetic rats

This study describes the electrophysiological responses of endoneurial preparations derived from rat sciatic nerve to acute hypoxia in vitro. Preparations from control rats exhibited a 40% decline in compound action potential (CAP) amplitude after 40 min exposure to medium gassed with 8% O2. In preparations from 4 week streptozotocin-diabetic rats CAP declined by only 29%, indicating a resistance to hypoxic conduction blockade. Treating diabetic rats with mixed bovine brain gangliosides (10 mg/kg/day i.p.) exaggerated this resistance to hypoxic conduction blockade as CAP amplitude fell to only 18% of initial values. In a separate experiment, treating non-diabetic rats with gangliosides (10 mg/kg/day i.p.) or adding gangliosides (400 micrograms/ml) directly to the medium in which control nerves were maintained during in vitro recording also significantly attenuated the decline in CAP amplitude after 40 min hypoxia, thus effectively inducing a resistance to hypoxic conduction blockade similar to that observed in nerves from diabetic rats. These studies demonstrate that the systemic or acute local administration of gangliosides induces a resistance to hypoxic conduction block in normal nerve and exaggerates the resistance to hypoxic conduction block of diabetic rats.

Dehydration: a new alcohol theory

A central belief about ethanol is that it acts mainly by partitioning into the lipid bilayer of membranes. Newer ideas focus on the neuronal synapse and suggest that ethanol can allosterically change protein conformation, as is suggested by studies on GABA-receptor-mediated chloride uptake and on (Na(+)-K+)-ATPase. Several studies from my laboratory suggest that ethanol enhances enzymatic cleavage of sialic acid (SA) from gangliosides, and perhaps also glycoproteins, but does so without stimulating enzyme activity, suggesting conformational changes that affect accessibility. I propose a new model for the cell membrane in the synaptic region, which features gangliosides surrounding membrane proteins, with an interspersed film of water creating hydrogen bonds that anchor SA moieties to membrane protein. I believe that we should consider the possibility that an important action of ethanol, and polar anesthetics, is due to hydrophilic, not hydrophobic, properties and the ability to dehydrate the cell-surface microdomain. Our laboratory has recently advanced the theory that ethanol dehydrates a "solvent regulatory site" of membrane (Na(+)-K+)-ATPase. This principle might be extended to other enzymes and receptor proteins, as well as to the accessibility of sialoglycoconjugates to sialidase (neuraminidase). Hydrogen bonding between SA and polar regions of receptor protein, and the conformation on both imposed by it, would surely be changed by minor degrees of dehydration and substitution of alcohol molecules for water. Ethanol, unlike water, can only hydrogen bond "at one end." Displacement of water by ethanol would not only "free" the SA groups and make them more vulnerable to enzymatic cleavage but also could simultaneously change the conformation of receptor protein. Similarly, ethanol may displace water that links the polar heads of phospholipids to polar portions of receptors proteins. Ethanol may have an even more important and direct effect of substituting for hydrogen-bonded water within protein itself.

Damaging effects of Clostridium perfringens delta toxin on blood platelets and their relevance to ganglioside GM2

The lytic effect of Clostridium perfringens delta toxin was investigated on goat, human, rabbit, and guinea pig platelets. In contrast to erythrocytes from the latter three species, which are insensitive to the toxin, the platelets were equally lysed by the same amount of toxin. These results suggest the presence of GM2 or GM2-like ganglioside(s) as a specific recognition site of the toxin on platelet plasmic membrane as previously established for sensitive erythrocytes. Plasmic membrane damage of human platelets was evidenced by the release of entrapped alpha-[14C]aminoisobutyric acid used as a cytoplasmic marker. The specific binding of hemolytically active 125I-delta toxin by human and rabbit platelets was practically identical, dose dependent, and inhibitable by GM2. Labeled toxin was also bound by various subcellular organelles separated from rabbit platelets except the 5-hydroxytryptamine (5-HT)-containing dense bodies, suggesting the absence or inaccessibility of GM2 on the surface of the latter organelles. This result correlates with the low amounts of 5-[3H]HT liberated after platelet challenge with delta toxin whereas this mediator was massively liberated upon lysis by the sulfhydryl-activated toxin alveolysin. The levels of M and P forms of phenol sulfotransferase (PST), involved in 5-HT catabolism, were determined in human platelet lysates after challenge with delta toxin, alveolysin, and other disruptive treatments. The low PST-M activities detected after lysis by delta toxin suggest that this isoenzyme is very likely associated to dense bodies in contrast to PST-P which is cytoplasmic. Platelet lysis by the toxin allows easy separation of these organelles.

Effect of ganglioside-GM1 on the order of phosphatidylcholine-cholesterol multilamellar liposomes. A fluorescence polarization study

The effect(s) of bovine brain ganglioside-GM1 on the order of phosphatidylcholine-cholesterol membranes were studied using steady-state fluorescence polarization (FPZ) techniques with 1,6-diphenyl-1,3,5-hexatriene (DPH) as the membrane probe. In the absence of cholesterol, GM1 (30 mol%) increases both membrane order and the phase transition temperature of dipalmitoylphosphatidylcholine (DPPC) and dimyristoylphosphatidylcholine (DMPC) membranes. However, in the presence of cholesterol (0.3 or 0.5, cholesterol/phospholipid molar ratio), GM1 significantly decreases steady-state anisotropy (rs) at temperatures above the Tm for the particular phospholipid. This effect may, in part relate to a dilution of membrane cholesterol and is shared by bovine brain sphingomyelin (SM). GM1 (30 mol%) increases the order of 1-palmityl-2-oleyl-PC (POPC) membranes. However, in the presence of cholesterol (0.3 molar ratio) GM1 neither increases or decreases order. Thus, in cholesterol containing artificial membranes, the effect of GM1 depends on the phosphatidylcholine (PC) fatty acid composition and may not be evident from the effect of GM1 on pure PC membranes.

Gangliosides in the nervous system during development and regeneration

Gangliosides are present in nervous tissues of echinoderms and chordates, but the amounts and patterns differ widely. There are changes in the ganglioside contents of nervous tissues during development in most animals studied. To a large extent, regional differences and changes with development and degeneration in ganglioside composition reflect changing and different proportions of cellular types and subcellular organelles within the tissue. GM1 and GM4 are enriched in myelin; GD1a may be a marker for dendritic arborization. During regeneration of fish optic nerve and rat sciatic nerve there is an increased amount of ganglioside proximal to the regenerating axon tips, which may largely be a result of accumulation. This could provide a relatively large reservoir of ganglioside to become incorporated into the sprouting axolemma. Gangliosides added exogenously to growth medium can induce neuritogenesis of several types of neurons. The mechanisms of this action are unknown but may be related to nerve growth factor, microskeletal organization, membrane fluidity, and other factors. Gangliosides injected into young animals affect brain development, but further studies are required to determine these effects more specifically. Ganglioside administration increases the number of sprouts in regenerating peripheral nerves, but does not seem to accelerate axonal elongation. Parenterally administered gangliosides alter the recovery of brain tissue from a variety of types of lesions, and clinical trials are in progress to determine if they are of benefit in human neurological disorders. The biochemical mechanisms of these in vivo ganglioside effects are poorly understood, but may involve modulation of several enzyme systems as well as other properties of neural membranes, such as fluidity. It is possible that gangliosides may play similar roles and operate through some of the same mechanisms in developing and regenerating nervous tissues.

Organization of ganglioside GM1 in phosphatidylcholine bilayers

Molecules of the ganglioside GM1 are randomly distributed in liquid-crystalline 1-palmitoyl-2-oleoyl phosphatidylcholine bilayers. This conclusion is based on a freeze-etch electron microscopic study using ferritin-conjugated cholera toxin and cholera toxin alone as ganglioside labels. The average number of GM1 molecules under a label is calculated by a novel method from the dependence of the fraction of bilayer area covered by the label on the mole fraction of GM1 in the bilayer.