Discriminating binding and positioning of amphiphiles to lipid bilayers by 1H NMR Original Research Article

The binding and positioning in lipid bilayers of three well-known drugs—imipramine, nicotine, and caffeine—have been studied using 1H NMR. The membrane model system consisted of “fast-tumbling” lipid bicelles, in which a bilayered lipid domain, composed of the unsaturated lipid, 1,2-dimyristelaidoyl-sn-glycero-3-phosphocholine (DMLPC) was surrounded by a rim of deuterated detergent-like lipids, consisting of 1,2-dihexanoyl-sn-glycero-3-phosphocholine (DHPC-d22). Binding and immersion depth information was obtained by three experiments. (1) 1H chemical shift perturbations, upon transfer of the amphiphiles from water to a bicelle mixture, were used to estimate regions of the amphiphiles that interact with the membrane. (2) Water contact to resolvable protons was measured through a Nuclear Overhauser Effect (NOE) between water and resolvable drug and lipid resonances. In the case of both lipids and membrane bound drugs, positive NOEs with large cross-relaxation rates were measured for most resonances originating from the membrane hydrophilic region, while negative NOEs were observed predominantly to resonances in the hydrophobic region of the membrane. (3) 1H NMR measurements of oxygen-induced (paramagnetic) spin-lattice relaxation rates, which are known to increase with membrane immersion depth, were used to corroborate conclusions based on chemical shift perturbations and water-ligand NOEs.