A study of the effects of tethering chemistry on the properties of tethered membranes

T. Berry,¹ J. Andersson,² I. Köper,² P. Duckworth,³ B. Cornell⁴ and C. Cranfield,¹ ¹Molecular Biosciences Team, School of Life Sciences, University of Technology Sydney, Ultimo, NSW 2007, Australia, ²Flinders Centre for Nanoscale Science and Technology, School of Chemical and Physical Sciences, Flinders University, Adelaide, SA 5001, Australia, ³eDAQ Pty Ltd, 6 Doig Ave, Denison East, NSW 2112, Australia and ⁴SDx Tethered Membranes Pty Ltd, 30-32 Barcoo St, Roseville, NSW 2069, Australia.

A family of tethering chemistries were employed in fabricating a tethered lipid bilayer comprising phosphocholine diphytanyl lipids. Using electrical impedance spectroscopy (EIS), this report describes the impact of each tether chemistry on the observed properties of conduction and capacitance of the tethered membrane. Tethered membranes are a stable mimic of biological membranes and may be employed to screen the biological activity of compound libraries and as platforms for diagnostic technologies. The results demonstrate that lower density tethers and more hydrophilic, longer tethering groups result in the membrane properties trending more nearly to those of a free standing solvent free liposomal lipid bilayer. Details of the fabrication and measurement of their EIS properties are provided in the following references (Cranfield et al., 2016; Nizalapur et al., 2016).

Cranfield CG, Berry T, Holt SA, Hossain KR, Le Brun AP, Carne S, Al Khamici H, Coster H, Valenzuela SM, & Cornell B (2016). Evidence of the key role of H₃O⁺ in phospholipid membrane morphology. Langmuir 32, 10725-10734.

Nizalapur S, Ho KK, Kimyon O, Yee E, Berry T, Manefield M, Cranfield CG, Willcox M, Black DS & Kumar N (2016). Synthesis and biological evaluation of N-naphthoyl-phenylglyoxamide-based small molecular antimicrobial peptide mimics as novel antimicrobial agents and biofilm inhibitors. Org Biomol Chem 14, 3623-3637.