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The interaction between chiral drugs and biomimetic membranes is of interest in biophysical research and biotechnological applications. There is a belief that the membrane composition, particularly the presence of cholesterol, could play a pivotal role in determining enantiospecific effects of pharmaceuticals. Our study explores this topic focusing on the interaction of ibuprofen enantiomers (S- and R-IBP) with cholesterol-containing model membranes. The effects of S- and R-IBP at 20 mol% on bilayer mixtures of dipalmitoylphosphatidylcholine (DPPC) with 0, 10, 20 and 50 mol% cholesterol were investigated using circular dichroism and spin-label electron spin resonance. Morphological changes due to IBP enantiomers were studied with atomic force microscopy on supported cholesterol-containing DPPC monolayers. The results reveal that IBP isoforms significantly and equally interact with pure DPPC lipid assemblies. Cholesterol content, besides modifying the structure and the morphology of the membranes, triggers the drug enantioselectivity at 10 and 20 mol%, with the enantiomers differently adsorbing on membranes and perturbing them. The spectroscopic and the microscopic data indicate that IBP stereospecificity is markedly reduced at equimolar content of Chol mixed with DPPC. This study provides new insights into the role of cholesterol in modulating enantiospecific effects of IBP in lipid membranes., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2024 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Resveratrol is a natural polyphenol found in various plants with potential therapeutic activity as anti-oxidant, anti-inflammatory, cardioprotective and anti-tumoral. Lipid membranes are among cellular components that are targets of its action. In this work ESR of chain labeled lipids, calorimetry, X-ray diffraction and molecular docking are used to study the interaction of resveratrol with membrane model systems of dipalmitoylphosphatidylcholine (DPPC) as a function of resveratrol concentration (0-30 mol% of the lipid) and temperature (10-50°C). Resveratrol incorporated in DPPC bilayers induces considerable motional restriction at the lipid tail termini, removing the gradient of increasing mobility along the chain found in DPPC bilayers in the gel phase. In contrast, it leaves unperturbed the DPPC chain flexibility profile in the liquid-crystalline phase. At low concentration, resveratrol progressively reduces the pre-transition temperature and eliminates the pre-transition for content ≥5mol%. A reduced cooperativity and a downshift of the main transition temperature are observed, especially at high content. The typical diffraction pattern of DPPC multibilayers in the L β' phase is converted to a lamellar pattern with reduced d-spacing of untilted lipid chain in a hexagonal packing at 30 mol% of resveratrol. Molecular docking indicates that the energetically favoured anchoring site is the polar headgroup region, where resveratrol acts as a spacer. The overall results are consistent with the formation in DPPC of an interdigitated L βi gel phase induced by 30 mol% resveratrol., (Copyright © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

In this paper we report how the confining surfaces and the ionic effects of different concentration of guanosine solution can be used to vary the alignment of liquid crystal phases of guanosine nucleotides. Liquid crystal phases of guanosine 5'-monophosphate ammonium salt and guanosine 5'-monophosphate free acid in pure water, with and without silver sulphate, were studied by polarized optical microscope. A periodic modulation of the texture was observed. This modulation depends on both on the concentration and on the presence of silver ions in the liquid crystal phase. We demonstrate that, according to the surface energy of the alignment layers, it is possible to homeotropically align the guanosine chromonic phase without applying any external magnetic field. Finally, we report the formation of spherical, vesicle-like guanosine 5'-monophosphate aggregates, when the solution was confined between two hydrophobic surfaces containing exposed Si groups., (Copyright © 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)