Microfluidic platform for efficient Nanodisc assembly, membrane protein incorporation, and purification.

The characterization of integral membrane proteins presents numerous analytical challenges on account of their poor activity under non-native conditions, limited solubility in aqueous solutions, and low expression in most cell culture systems. Nanodiscs are synthetic model membrane constructs that offer many advantages for studying membrane protein function by offering a native-like phospholipid bilayer environment. The successful incorporation of membrane proteins within Nanodiscs requires experimental optimization of conditions. Standard protocols for Nanodisc formation can require large amounts of time and input material, limiting the facile screening of formation conditions. Capitalizing on the miniaturization and efficient mass transport inherent to microfluidics, we have developed a microfluidic platform for efficient Nanodisc assembly and purification, and demonstrated the ability to incorporate functional membrane proteins into the resulting Nanodiscs. In addition to working with reduced sample volumes, this platform simplifies membrane protein incorporation from a multi-stage protocol requiring several hours or days into a single platform that outputs purified Nanodiscs in less than one hour. To demonstrate the utility of this platform, we incorporated Cytochrome P450 into Nanodiscs of variable size and lipid composition, and present spectroscopic evidence for the functional active site of the membrane protein. This platform is a promising new tool for membrane protein biology and biochemistry that enables tremendous versatility for optimizing the incorporation of membrane proteins using microfluidic gradients to screen across diverse formation conditions.

Nanodiscs as a Modular Platform for Multimodal MR-Optical Imaging.

Nanodiscs are monodisperse, self-assembled discoidal particles that consist of a lipid bilayer encircled by membrane scaffold proteins (MSP). Nanodiscs have been used to solubilize membrane proteins for structural and functional studies and deliver therapeutic phospholipids. Herein, we report on tetramethylrhodamine (TMR) tagged nanodiscs that solubilize lipophilic MR contrast agents for generation of multimodal nanoparticles for cellular imaging. We incorporate both multimeric and monomeric Gd(III)-based contrast agents into nanodiscs and show that particles containing the monomeric agent (ND2) label cells with high efficiency and generate significant image contrast at 7 T compared to nanodiscs containing the multimeric agent (ND1) and Prohance, a clinically approved contrast agent.

Characterizing the membrane-bound state of cytochrome P450 3A4: structure, depth of insertion, and orientation.

Cytochrome P450 3A4 (CYP3A4) is the most abundant membrane-associated isoform of the P450 family in humans and is responsible for biotransformation of more than 50% of drugs metabolized in the body. Despite the large number of crystallographic structures available for CYP3A4, no structural information for its membrane-bound state at an atomic level is available. In order to characterize binding, depth of insertion, membrane orientation, and lipid interactions of CYP3A4, we have employed a combined experimental and simulation approach in this study. Taking advantage of a novel membrane representation, highly mobile membrane mimetic (HMMM), with enhanced lipid mobility and dynamics, we have been able to capture spontaneous binding and insertion of the globular domain of the enzyme into the membrane in multiple independent, unbiased simulations. Despite different initial orientations and positions of the protein in solution, all the simulations converged into the same membrane-bound configuration with regard to both the depth of membrane insertion and the orientation of the enzyme on the surface of the membrane. In tandem, linear dichroism measurements performed on CYP3A4 bound to Nanodisc membranes were used to characterize the orientation of the enzyme in its membrane-bound form experimentally. The heme tilt angles measured experimentally are in close agreement with those calculated for the membrane-bound structures resulted from the simulations, thereby verifying the validity of the developed model. Membrane binding of the globular domain in CYP3A4, which appears to be independent of the presence of the transmembrane helix of the full-length enzyme, significantly reshapes the protein at the membrane interface, causing conformational changes relevant to access tunnels leading to the active site of the enzyme.