Mempro™ Nanodisc as Model Membranes

Based on our magic Mempro™ Membrane Protein platform, Creative Biostructure has established several novel platforms as model membranes to mimic native lipids environment for membrane proteins, including Mempro™ Nanodisc technology, Mempro™ Liposome technology, and Mempro™ Virus-like Particle (VLPs) technology.  

Figure 1. Schematic drawings of monolayer (A), lipid bilayer (B), liposome (C) and nanodisc (D). (Int. J. Mol. Sci., 2013)

On one hand, biological membranes perform their function mostly based on the the embedded integral membrane proteins and the attached peripheral membrane proteins; on the other hand, the phospholipid composition of the membranes can modulate the activity of these membrane proteins as well. Creative Biostructure is able to reconstitute various membrane proteins into a model membrane such as liposome, VLP and nanodisc, which allows us to investigate and characterize a specific membrane component. However, such a reconstitution can not always sustain the activity of these membrane proteins due to the composition difference between the model membranes and the native cell membrane.

Mempro™ Nanodisc has proven to be such a powerful model membrane with valuable information about membrane biophysics. In order for our custom nanodiscs to be model membranes, they have to demonstrate physical properties similar to those know from biological and existing model membrane systems. Especially the behavior of the lipid bilayer environment of the nanodiscs has been investigated to a large extent. The phase transition of nanodiscs composed of different lipids and of MSP constructs have be examined by differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), laurdan generalized polarization (Laurdan GP) and small angle x-ray scattering (SAXS). DSC results of liposomes and nanodiscs composed of DMPC and DPPC showed a trend that the phase transition of nanodiscs is shifted 3-4°C higher than for the corresponding liposome systems. Furthermore, the phase transition of the nanodiscs is much broader than that of the liposomes. Compared to other model membranes, Mempro™ Nanodisc has a lot of advantages as follows:

• Presenting a biologically relevant, precisely-controlled phospholipid bilayer,
• Providing reproducible and effectively monodisperse particle size distributions,
• Modulating the particle size by changing the MSP sequence,
• Stable and robust in a variety of temperatures.

Mempro™ Nanodisc platform has been applied on a broad range of membrane protein research fields as the related sections shown. Please feel free to contact us for a detailed quote.

References:
H. Shen, et al. (2013). Reconstitution of Membrane Proteins into Model Membranes: Seeking Better Ways to Retain Protein Activities. Int. J. Mol. Sci., 14: 1589-1607.
E.N. Lyukmanova, et al. (2012). Lipid–protein nanodiscs for cell-free production of integral membrane proteins in a soluble and folded state: Comparison with detergent micelles, bicelles and liposomes. Biochimica et Biophysica Acta (BBA)-Biomembranes, 1818(3): 349-358.
J. L. Baylon, et al. (2013). Characterizing the Membrane-Bound State of Cytochrome P450 3A4: Structure, Depth of Insertion, and Orientation. J. Am. Chem. Soc., 135: 8542−8551.