Understanding carbon nanotube channel formation in the lipid membrane
Understanding carbon nanotube channel formation in the lipid membrane
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DOI：
10.1088/1361-6528/aaa77b
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发表时间：
2018-02
期刊：
影响因子：
3.5
通讯作者：
M. Choi;Hyunki Kim;B. Lee;Teayeop Kim;J. Rho;M. Kim;Kyunghoon Kim
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
M. Choi;Hyunki Kim;B. Lee;Teayeop Kim;J. Rho;M. Kim;Kyunghoon Kim
碳纳米管(CNTs)因其突出的离子电导和离子选择性而被认为是细胞膜中一种重要的纳米通道，为仿生通道平台提供了试剂。利用粗粒度分子动力学模拟，我们阐明了碳纳米管在脂膜中长时间垂直纳米通道的构建机理，这在以往的碳纳米管-脂类相互作用模拟中是很难观察到的。结果表明，碳纳米管的脂膜密度和长度都影响着制备垂直稳定的碳纳米管通道的适宜条件。此外，模拟还表明，碳纳米管表面的脂膜阻止了碳纳米管钻入脂膜，而垂直通道是通过膜中脂类与膜之间的排斥力来稳定的。我们的研究对碳纳米管如何在膜中形成稳定的垂直通道提供了基本的理解，这对于设计新型的人工通道作为生物流体研究的生物传感器具有重要意义。
Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) have been considered a prominent nano-channel in cell membranes because of their prominent ion-conductance and ion-selectivity, offering agents for a biomimetic channel platform. Using a coarse-grained molecular dynamics simulation, we clarify a construction mechanism of vertical CNT nano-channels in a lipid membrane for a long period, which has been difficult to observe in previous CNT-lipid interaction simulations. The result shows that both the lipid coating density and length of CNT affect the suitable fabrication condition for a vertical and stable CNT channel. Also, simulation elucidated that a lipid coating on the surface of the CNT prevents the CNT from burrowing into the lipid membrane and the vertical channel is stabilized by the repulsion force between the lipids in the coating and membrane. Our study provides an essential understanding of how CNTs can form stable and vertical channels in the membrane, which is important for designing new types of artificial channels as biosensors for bio-fluidic studies.