Mesoscopic Simulation Study of Lipid Mediated Interactions between Intrinsic Membrane Proteins

摘要

For complex biological systems, questions concerning their functioning should be answered from the principle that their properties are not only related to the individual behaviour of each component but also to the interactions between them. This is particularly true for biological membranes and hence it is important to invoke the collective nature of the system for the study of membrane processes. An important membrane process that received increasing attention over the last years is the lipid mediated interaction between integral membrane proteins. The results from a number of investigations, e.g., have pointed out that the composition of the lipid membrane and the hydrophobic matching between the lipid bilayer hydrophobic thickness and the hydrophobic length of the transmembrane proteins are important physical properties that regulate the mechanism of lipid-protein interaction in biomembranes. Moreover, a protein-induced bilayer deformation could interact with a bilayer deformation due to one or several other proteins and this could result in indirect lipid mediated protein interactions. These could play a greater part in protein topology, protein activity and membrane processes than is presently supposed. Proteins or other membrane inclusions, like e.g. cholesterol, affect the lipid metabolism and transport, which have a role in diseases. On the other hand, lipids influence the distribution and the function of the proteins.