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An efficient approach to study membrane nano-inclusions: from the complex biological world to a simple representation

Membrane nano-inclusions (NIs) are of great interest in biophysics, materials science, nanotechnology, and medicine. We hypothesized that the NIs within a biological membrane bilayer interact via a simple and efficient interaction potential, inspired by previous experimental and theoretical work. Th...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Lemaalem, M., Hadrioui, N., El Fassi, S., Derouiche, A., Ridouane, H.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: The Royal Society of Chemistry 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8695885/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35423551
http://dx.doi.org/10.1039/d1ra00632k
Descripción
Sumario:Membrane nano-inclusions (NIs) are of great interest in biophysics, materials science, nanotechnology, and medicine. We hypothesized that the NIs within a biological membrane bilayer interact via a simple and efficient interaction potential, inspired by previous experimental and theoretical work. This interaction implicitly treats the membrane lipids but takes into account its effect on the NIs micro-arrangement. Thus, the study of the NIs is simplified to a two-dimensional colloidal system with implicit solvent. We calculated the structural properties from Molecular Dynamics simulations (MD), and we developed a Scaling Theory to discuss their behavior. We determined the thermal properties through potential energy per NI and pressure, and we discussed their variation as a function of the NIs number density. We performed a detailed study of the NIs dynamics using two approaches, MD simulations, and Dynamics Theory. We identified two characteristic values of number density, namely a critical number density n(c) = 3.67 × 10(−3) Å(−2) corresponded to the apparition of chain-like structures along with the liquid dispersed structure and the gelation number density n(g) = 8.40 × 10(−3) Å(−2) corresponded to the jamming state. We showed that the aggregation structure of NIs is of fractal dimension d(F) < 2. Also, we identified three diffusion regimes of membrane NIs, namely, normal for n < n(c), subdiffusive for n(c) ≤ n < n(g), and blocked for n ≥ n(g). Thus, this paper proposes a simple and effective approach for studying the physical properties of membrane NIs. In particular, our results identify scaling exponents related to the microstructure and dynamics of membrane NIs.