Electron spin echo detection of stochastic molecular librations: Non-cooperative motions on solid surface

Evidence for capture of spin-labeled ibuprofen drug molecules by lipid rafts in model membranes

Lipid rafts are lipid-cholesterol nanostructures thought to exist in cell membranes, which are characterized by higher ordering compared to their surroundings. Ibuprofen and other non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) have a high affinity for phospholipid membranes and can alter their structure and biological properties. Here we use electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) in its pulsed electron spin echo (ESE) version to study spin-labeled ibuprofen (ibuprofen-SL) in a raft-mimicking bilayer, which consists of an equimolar mixture of the phospholipids dioleoyl-glycero-phosphocholine (DOPC) and dipalmitoyl-glycero-phosphocholine (DPPC), with cholesterol added in various proportions. ESE decays are sensitive to the presence of low-temperature small-angle orientational motions of molecules - stochastic molecular librations. The data obtained show that in the presence of lipid rafts the temperature dependence of the spin relaxation rate induced by this motion reaches a plateau. This behavior is characteristic of non-cooperative motion of a surface-bound molecule. Based on this analogy, the data obtained were interpreted as evidence that ibuprofen-SL molecules are adsorbed on the raft boundaries.

Probing Small-Angle Molecular Motions with EPR Spectroscopy: Dynamical Transition and Molecular Packing in Disordered Solids

Disordered molecular solids present a rather broad class of substances of different origin—amorphous polymers, materials for photonics and optoelectronics, amorphous pharmaceutics, simple molecular glass formers, and others. Frozen biological media in many respects also may be referred to this class. Theoretical description of dynamics and structure of disordered solids still does not exist, and only some phenomenological models can be developed to explain results of particular experiments. Among different experimental approaches, electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) applied to spin probes and labels also can deliver useful information. EPR allows probing small-angle orientational molecular motions (molecular librations), which intrinsically are inherent to all molecular solids. EPR is employed in its conventional continuous wave (CW) and pulsed—electron spin echo (ESE)—versions. CW EPR spectra are sensitive to dynamical librations of molecules while ESE probes stochastic molecular librations. In this review, different manifestations of small-angle motions in EPR of spin probes and labels are discussed. It is shown that CW-EPR-detected dynamical librations provide information on dynamical transition in these media, similar to that explored with neutron scattering, and ESE-detected stochastic librations allow elucidating some features of nanoscale molecular packing. The possible EPR applications are analyzed for gel-phase lipid bilayers, for biological membranes interacting with proteins, peptides and cryoprotectants, for supercooled ionic liquids (ILs) and supercooled deep eutectic solvents (DESs), for globular proteins and intrinsically disordered proteins (IDPs), and for some other molecular solids.

Structural properties of supercooled deep eutectic solvents: choline chloride–thiourea compared to reline

Deep eutectic solvents (DESs) are eutectic mixtures of hydrogen bond acceptors and hydrogen bond donors which melt at much lower temperatures than the individual components. DESs attract growing interest because...

Evidence for an Ordering Transition near 120 K in an Intrinsically Disordered Protein, Casein

Intrinsically disordered proteins (IDPs) are proteins that possess large unstructured regions. Their importance is increasingly recognized in biology but their characterization remains a challenging task. We employed field swept Electron Spin Echoes in pulsed EPR to investigate low-temperature stochastic molecular librations in a spin-labeled IDP, casein (the main protein of milk). For comparison, a spin-labeled globular protein, hen egg white lysozyme, is also investigated. For casein these motions were found to start at 100 K while for lysozyme only above 130 K, which was ascribed to a denser and more ordered molecular packing in lysozyme. However, above 120 K, the motions in casein were found to depend on temperature much slower than those in lysozyme. This abrupt change in casein was assigned to an ordering transition in which peptide residues rearrange making the molecular packing more rigid and/or more cohesive. The found features of molecular motions in these two proteins turned out to be very similar to those known for gel-phase lipid bilayers composed of conformationally ordered and conformationally disordered lipids. This analogy with a simpler molecular system may appear helpful for elucidation properties of molecular packing in IDPs.

Validation of Structural Grounds for Anomalous Molecular Mobility in Ionic Liquid Glasses

Ionic liquid (IL) glasses have recently drawn much interest as unusual media with unique physicochemical properties. In particular, anomalous suppression of molecular mobility in imidazolium IL glasses vs. increasing temperature was evidenced by pulse Electron Paramagnetic Resonance (EPR) spectroscopy. Although such behavior has been proven to originate from dynamics of alkyl chains of IL cations, the role of electron spin relaxation induced by surrounding protons still remains unclear. In this work we synthesized two deuterated imidazolium-based ILs to reduce electron-nuclear couplings between radical probe and alkyl chains of IL, and investigated molecular mobility in these glasses. The obtained trends were found closely similar for deuterated and protonated analogs, thus excluding the relaxation-induced artifacts and reliably demonstrating structural grounds of the observed anomalies in heterogeneous IL glasses.