Development of novel nano discs for structural analysis of membrane proteins

设计了新的膜蛋白增溶剂，使其以双层结构覆盖蛋白质的疏水表面。 通过用去污剂取代一个酰基链，合成了基于磷脂酰胆碱的增溶剂。 该试剂被发现稳定地增溶细菌视紫红质，与常规洗涤剂相比具有较低的变性效果。 一种细菌视紫红质的溶解仅需要约30个分子。 这些有希望的结果表明，该试剂具有上级性能的膜蛋白的结构研究。

New agents for solubilization of membrane proteins were designed to cover hydrophobic surface of proteins with bilayer-like orientations. A phosphatidylcholine-based solubilizing agent was synthesized by substituting one acyl chain with a detergent. The agent was found to stably solubilize bacteriorhodopsins with lower denaturing effect compared with conventional detergents. Only ~30 molecules were required for solubilization of one bacteriophodopsin. These promising results indicate that the agent has superior properties for structural studies of membrane proteins.