Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• Bhaskara, Ramachandra M
• Linker, Stephanie M
• Vögele, Martin
• Köfinger, Jürgen
• Hummer, Gerhard

Titel

Carbon Nanotubes Mediate Fusion of Lipid Vesicles

Ist Teil von

• ACS nano, 2017-02, Vol.11 (2), p.1273-1280

Ort / Verlag

United States: American Chemical Society

Erscheinungsjahr

2017

Quelle

Alma/SFX Local Collection

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• The fusion of lipid membranes is opposed by high energetic barriers. In living organisms, complex protein machineries carry out this biologically essential process. Here we show that membrane-spanning carbon nanotubes (CNTs) can trigger spontaneous fusion of small lipid vesicles. In coarse-grained molecular dynamics simulations, we find that a CNT bridging between two vesicles locally perturbs their lipid structure. Their outer leaflets merge as the CNT pulls lipids out of the membranes, creating an hourglass-shaped fusion intermediate with still intact inner leaflets. As the CNT moves away from the symmetry axis connecting the vesicle centers, the inner leaflets merge, forming a pore that completes fusion. The distinct mechanism of CNT-mediated membrane fusion may be transferable, providing guidance in the development of fusion agents, e.g., for the targeted delivery of drugs or nucleic acids.