Anders Gunnarsson

Dynamic microcompartmentalization of giant unilamellar vesicles by sol–gel transition and temperature induced shrinking/swelling of poly(N-isopropyl acrylamide)

Giant unilamellar vesicles (GUVs) were microinjected with aqueous solutions of poly(-isopropyl acrylamide) (PNIPAAm). Temperature-dependent sol-gel phase transitions of the solutions, followed by shrinking and swelling of the resulting hydrogel, were studied in the presence of a variety of co-solutes within the GUV. Reversible formation of a dense, spherical hydrogel structure (compartment) was observed in all cases with defined shrinking/swelling behaviour at temperatures above the lower critical solution temperatures (LCSTs). Nanotube-mediated merging of two vesicles with thus formed compartments resulted in a single GUV with two internalized hydrogel structures. As an application example, we demonstrate how fluorescent nanoparticles can be immobilized in such gel structures.

Accumulation and separation of membrane-bound proteins using hydrodynamic forces.

The separation of molecules residing in the cell membrane remains a largely unsolved problem in the fields of bioscience and biotechnology. We demonstrate how hydrodynamic forces can be used to both accumulate and separate membrane-bound proteins in their native state. A supported lipid bilayer (SLB) was formed inside a microfluidic channel with the two proteins streptavidin (SA) and cholera toxin (CT) coupled to receptors in the lipid bilayer. The anchored proteins were first driven toward the edge of the lipid bilayer by hydrodynamic forces from a flowing liquid above the SLB, resulting in the accumulation of protein molecules at the edge of the bilayer. After the concentration process, the bulk flow of liquid in the channel was reversed and the accumulated proteins were driven away from the edge of the bilayer. Each type of protein was found to move at a characteristic drift velocity, determined by the frictional coupling between the protein and the lipid bilayer, as well as the size and shape of the protein molecule. Despite having a similar molecular weight, SA and CT could be separated into monomolecular populations using this approach. The method also revealed heterogeneity among the CT molecules, resulting in three subpopulations with different drift velocities. This was tentatively attributed to multivalent interactions between the protein and the monosialoganglioside G(M1) receptors in the lipid bilayer.

Spatial-Resolution Limits in Mass Spectrometry Imaging of Supported Lipid Bilayers and Individual Lipid Vesicles

The capabilities of time-of-flight secondary ion mass spectrometry (TOF-SIMS) with regards to limits in lateral resolution for biological samples are examined using supported lipid bilayers and individual lipid vesicles, both being among the most commonly used cell membrane mimics. Using supported 1-palmitoyl-2-oleoyl-sn-glycero-3-phosphocholine (POPC) bilayers confined to a SiO(2) substrate by a chemically modified gold surface, the edge of the lipid bilayer was analyzed by imaging TOF-SIMS to assess the lateral resolution. The results using 80 keV Bi(3)(2+) primary ions show that, under optimized conditions, mass spectrometry imaging of specific unlabeled lipid fragments is possible with sub-100 nm lateral resolution. Comparison of the secondary ion yields for the phosphocholine ion (m/z 184) from a POPC bilayer using C(60)(+) or Bi(3)(+) primary ions showed similar results, indicating an advantage of Bi(3)(+) primary ions for high-resolution imaging of lipid membranes, due to their better demonstrated focusing capability. Moreover, using 300 nm vesicles of different lipid composition, the capability to detect and chemically identify individual submicrometer lipid vesicles at separations down to approximately 1 microm is demonstrated.

Supported lipid bilayers, tethered lipid vesicles, and vesicle fusion investigated using gravimetric, plasmonic, and microscopy techniques

This article summarizes our most recent contributions to the rapidly growing field of supported lipid assemblies with emphasis on current studies addressing both fundamental and applied aspects of supported lipid bilayer (SLB) and tethered lipid vesicles (TLVs) to be utilized in sensing applications. The new insights obtained from combining the quartz crystal microbalance with dissipation monitoring technique with surface plasmon resonance are described, and we also present recent studies in which nanoplasmonic sensing has been used in studies of SLBs and TLVs. To gain full control over the spatial arrangement of TLVs in both two and three dimensions, we have developed a method for site-selective and sequence-specific sorting of DNA-tagged vesicles to surfaces modified with complementary DNA. The combination of this method with nanoplasmonic sensing formats is covered as well as the possibility of using DNA-modified vesicles for the detection of unlabeled DNA targets on the single-molecule level. Finally, a new method for membrane fusion induced by hybridization of vesicle-anchored DNA is demonstrated, including new results on content mixing obtained with vesicle populations encapsulating short, complementary DNA strands.

Liposome-Based Chemical Barcodes for Single Molecule DNA Detection Using Imaging Mass Spectrometry

We report on a mass-spectrometry (time-of-flight secondary ion mass spectrometry, TOF-SIMS) based method for multiplexed DNA detection utilizing a random array, where the lipid composition of small unilamellar liposomes act as chemical barcodes to identify unique DNA target sequences down to the single molecule level. In a sandwich format, suspended target-DNA to be detected mediates the binding of capture-DNA modified liposomes to surface-immobilized probe-DNA. With the lipid composition of each liposome encoding a unique target-DNA sequence, TOF-SIMS analysis was used to determine the chemical fingerprint of the bound liposomes. Using high-resolution TOF-SIMS imaging, providing sub-200 nm spatial resolution, single DNA targets could be detected and identified via the chemical fingerprint of individual liposomes. The results also demonstrate the capability of TOF-SIMS to provide multiplexed detection of DNA targets on substrate areas in the micrometer range. Together with a high multiplexing capacity, this makes the concept an interesting alternative to existing barcode concepts based on fluorescence, Raman, or graphical codes for small-scale bioanalysis.

Continuous Lipid Bilayers Derived from Cell Membranes for Spatial Molecular Manipulation

Progress with respect to enrichment and separation of native membrane components in complex lipid environments, such as native cell membranes, has so far been very limited. The reason for the slow progress can be related to the lack of efficient means to generate continuous and laterally fluid supported lipid bilayers (SLBs) made from real cell membranes. We show in this work how the edge of a hydrodynamically driven SLB can be used to induce rupture of adsorbed lipid vesicles of compositions that typically prevent spontaneous SLB formation, such as vesicles made of complex lipid compositions, containing high cholesterol content or being derived from real cell membranes. In particular, upon fusion between the moving edge of a preformed SLB and adsorbed vesicles made directly from 3T3 fibroblast cell membranes, the membrane content of the vesicles was shown to be efficiently transferred to the SLB. The molecular transfer was verified using cholera toxin B subunit (CTB) binding to monosialoganglioside receptors (G(M1) and G(M3)), and the preserved lateral mobility was confirmed by spatial manipulation of the G(M1/M3)-CTB complex using a hydrodynamic flow. Two populations of CTB with markedly different drift velocity could be identified, which from dissociation kinetics data were attributed to CTB bound with different numbers of ganglioside anchors.

Ligand binding mechanism in steroid receptors; from conserved plasticity to differential evolutionary constraints

Steroid receptor drugs have been available for more than half a century, but details of the ligand binding mechanism have remained elusive. We solved X-ray structures of the glucocorticoid and mineralocorticoid receptors to identify a conserved plasticity at the helix 6-7 region that extends the ligand binding pocket toward the receptor surface. Since none of the endogenous ligands exploit this region, we hypothesized that it constitutes an integral part of the binding event. Extensive all-atom unbiased ligand exit and entrance simulations corroborate a ligand binding pathway that gives the observed structural plasticity a key functional role. Kinetic measurements reveal that the receptor residence time correlates with structural rearrangements observed in both structures and simulations. Ultimately, our findings reveal why nature has conserved the capacity to open up this region, and highlight how differences in the details of the ligand entry process result in differential evolutionary constraints across the steroid receptors.

Evanescent Light-Scattering Microscopy for Label-Free Interfacial Imaging: From Single Sub-100 nm Vesicles to Live Cells.

Advancement in the understanding of biomolecular interactions has benefited greatly from the development of surface-sensitive bioanalytical sensors. To further increase their broad impact, significant efforts are presently being made to enable label-free and specific biomolecule detection with high sensitivity, allowing for quantitative interpretation and general applicability at low cost. In this work, we have addressed this challenge by developing a waveguide chip consisting of a flat silica core embedded in a symmetric organic cladding with a refractive index matching that of water. This is shown to reduce stray light (background) scattering and thereby allow for label-free detection of faint objects, such as individual sub-20 nm gold nanoparticles as well as sub-100 nm lipid vesicles. Measurements and theoretical analysis revealed that light-scattering signals originating from single surface-bound lipid vesicles enable characterization of their sizes without employing fluorescent lipids as labels. The concept is also demonstrated for label-free measurements of protein binding to and enzymatic (phospholipase A2) digestion of individual lipid vesicles, enabling an analysis of the influence on the measured kinetics of the dye-labeling of lipids required in previous assays. Further, diffraction-limited imaging of cells (platelets) binding to a silica surface showed that distinct subcellular features could be visualized and temporally resolved during attachment, activation, and spreading. Taken together, these results underscore the versatility and general applicability of the method, which due to its simplicity and compatibility with conventional microscopy setups may reach a widespread in life science and beyond.

Preserved Transmembrane Protein Mobility in Polymer-Supported Lipid Bilayers Derived from Cell Membranes

Supported lipid bilayers (SLBs) have contributed invaluable information about the physiochemical properties of cell membranes, but their compositional simplicity often limits the level of knowledge that can be gained about the structure and function of transmembrane proteins in their native environment. Herein, we demonstrate a generic protocol for producing polymer-supported lipid bilayers on glass surfaces that contain essentially all naturally occurring cell-membrane components of a cell line while still retaining transmembrane protein mobility and activity. This was achieved by merging vesicles made from synthetic lipids (PEGylated lipids and POPC lipids) with native cell-membrane vesicles to generate hybrid vesicles which readily rupture into a continuous polymer-supported lipid bilayer. To investigate the properties of these complex hybrid SLBs and particularly the behavior of their integral membrane-proteins, we used total internal reflection fluorescence imaging to study a transmembrane protease, β-secretase 1 (BACE1), whose ectoplasmic and cytoplasmic domains could both be specifically targeted with fluorescent reporters. By selectively probing the two different orientations of BACE1 in the resulting hybrid SLBs, the role of the PEG-cushion on transmembrane protein lateral mobility was investigated. The results reveal the necessity of having the PEGylated lipids present during vesicle adsorption to prevent immobilization of transmembrane proteins with protruding domains. The proteolytic activity of BACE1 was unadulterated by the sonication process used to merge the synthetic and native membrane vesicles; importantly it was also conserved in the SLB. The presented strategy could thus serve both fundamental studies of membrane biophysics and the production of surface-based bioanalytical sensor platforms.

Kinetic and thermodynamic characterization of single-mismatch discrimination using single-molecule imaging

A single-molecule detection setup based on total internal reflection fluorescence (TIRF) microscopy has been used to investigate association and dissociation kinetics of unlabeled 30mer DNA strands. Single-molecule sensitivity was accomplished by letting unlabeled DNA target strands mediate the binding of DNA-modified and fluorescently labeled liposomes to a DNA-modified surface. The liposomes, acting as signal enhancer elements, enabled the number of binding events as well as the residence time for high affinity binders (Kd < 1 nM, koff < 0.01 s−1) to be collected under equilibrium conditions at low pM concentrations. The mismatch discrimination obtained from the residence time data was shown to be concentration and temperature independent in intervals of 1–100 pM and 23–46°C, respectively. This suggests the method as a robust means for detection of point mutations at low target concentrations in, for example, single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) analysis.