Structural design of intrinsically fluorescent oxysterols.

Oxysterols are oxidized derivatives of cholesterol with many important biological functions. Trafficking of oxysterols in and between cells is not well studied, largely due to the lack of appropriate oxysterol analogs. Intrinsically fluorescent oxysterols present a new route towards direct observation of intracellular oxysterol trafficking by fluorescence microscopy. We characterize the fluorescence properties of the existing fluorescent 25-hydroxycholesterol analog 25-hydroxycholestatrienol, and propose a new probe with an extended conjugated system. The location of both probes inside a membrane is analyzed and compared with that of 25-hydroxycholesterol using molecular dynamics simulations. The analogs' one- and two-photon absorption properties inside the membrane are evaluated using electronic structure calculations with polarizable embedding. Due to predicted keto-enol tautomerisation of the new oxysterol analog, we also evaluate the keto form. Both analogs are found to be good probe candidates for 25-hydroxycholesterol, provided that the new analog remains in the enol-form. Only the new analog with extended conjugated system shows significant two-photon absorption, which is strongly enhanced by the presence of the membrane.

The Quality of the Embedding Potential Is Decisive for Minimal Quantum Region Size in Embedding Calculations: The Case of the Green Fluorescent Protein.

The calculation of spectral properties for photoactive proteins is challenging because of the large cost of electronic structure calculations on large systems. Mixed quantum mechanical (QM) and molecular mechanical (MM) methods are typically employed to make such calculations computationally tractable. This study addresses the connection between the minimal QM region size and the method used to model the MM region in the calculation of absorption properties-here exemplified for calculations on the green fluorescent protein. We find that polarizable embedding is necessary for a qualitatively correct description of the MM region, and that this enables the use of much smaller QM regions compared to fixed charge electrostatic embedding. Furthermore, absorption intensities converge very slowly with system size and inclusion of effective external field effects in the MM region through polarizabilities is therefore very important. Thus, this embedding scheme enables accurate prediction of intensities for systems that are too large to be treated fully quantum mechanically.

Cholera toxin B subunit induces local curvature on lipid bilayers.

The B subunit of the bacterial cholera toxin (CTxB) is responsible for the toxin binding to the cell membrane and its intracellular trafficking. CTxB binds to the monosialotetrahexosyl ganglioside at the plasma membrane of the target cell and mediates toxin internalization by endocytosis. CTxB induces a local membrane curvature that is essential for its clathrin-independent uptake. Using all-atom molecular dynamics, we show that CTxB induces local curvature, with the radius of curvature around 36 nm. The main feature of the CTxB molecular structure that causes membrane bending is the protruding alpha helices in the middle of the protein. Our study points to a generic protein design principle for generating local membrane curvature through specific binding to their lipid anchors.

Computational Approach to Evaluation of Optical Properties of Membrane Probes.

Computed optical properties of membrane probes are typically evaluated in the gas phase, i.e. neglecting the influence of the membrane. In this study, we examine how and to what extent a membrane influences the one- and two-photon absorption (1PA and 2PA, respectively) properties for a number of cholesterol analogs and thereby also evaluate the validity of the common gas phase approach. The membrane is modeled using the polarizable embedding scheme both with and without the effective external field extension of the polarizable embedding model. The shifts in excitation energies and 1PA oscillator strengths compared to the gas phase are relatively small, while the 2PA cross section is more affected. The electric field inside the membrane induces a larger change in the permanent electric dipole moment upon excitation of the analogs compared to the gas phase, which leads to an almost 2-fold increase in the 2PA cross section for one cholesterol analog. The relative trends observed in the membrane are the same as in the gas phase, and the use of gas phase calculations for qualitative comparison and design of cholesterol membrane probes is thus a useful and computationally efficient strategy.

Embedding beyond electrostatics-The role of wave function confinement.

We study excited states of cholesterol in solution and show that, in this specific case, solute wave-function confinement is the main effect of the solvent. This is rationalized on the basis of the polarizable density embedding scheme, which in addition to polarizable embedding includes non-electrostatic repulsion that effectively confines the solute wave function to its cavity. We illustrate how the inclusion of non-electrostatic repulsion results in a successful identification of the intense π → π(∗) transition, which was not possible using an embedding method that only includes electrostatics. This underlines the importance of non-electrostatic repulsion in quantum-mechanical embedding-based methods.

Design of new fluorescent cholesterol and ergosterol analogs: Insights from theory.

Cholesterol (Chol) and ergosterol (Erg) are abundant and important sterols in the plasma membrane of mammalian and yeast cells, respectively. The effects of Chol and Erg on membrane properties, as well as their intracellular transport, can be studied with use of fluorescence probes mimicking both sterols as closely as possible. In the search for new and efficient Chol and Erg probes, we use a combination of theoretical methods to explore a series of analogs. The optical properties of the analogs (i.e. excitation energies, emission energies and oscillator strengths) are examined using time-dependent density functional theory (TDDFT) and their ability to mimic the effects of Chol and Erg on membranes is investigated with molecular dynamics (MD) simulations of each analog in a 1-palmitoyl-2-oleoyl-phosphatidylcholine (POPC) bilayer. From the set of analogs we find two probes (3a and 3b) to display favorable electronic transition properties as well as strong condensing abilities. These findings can lead to the use of new efficient probes and aid in the understanding of the structural features of Chol and Erg that impart to them their unique effects on lipid membranes.

Ultramild protein-mediated click chemistry creates efficient oligonucleotide probes for targeting and detecting nucleic acids.

Functionalized synthetic oligonucleotides are finding growing applications in research, clinical studies, and therapy. However, it is not easy to prepare them in a biocompatible and highly efficient manner. We report a new strategy to synthesize oligonucleotides with promising nucleic acid targeting and detection properties. We focus in particular on the pH sensitivity of these new probes and their high target specificity. For the first time, human copper(I)-binding chaperon Cox17 was applied to effectively catalyze click labeling of oligonucleotides. This was performed under ultramild conditions with fluorophore, peptide, and carbohydrate azide derivatives. In thermal denaturation studies, the modified probes showed specific binding to complementary DNA and RNA targets. Finally, we demonstrated the pH sensitivity of the new rhodamine-based fluorescent probes in vitro and rationalize our results by electronic structure calculations.