title: Exploring the Effects on Lipid Bilayer Induced by Noble Gases via Molecular Dynamics Simulations.
abstract: Noble gases seem to have no significant effect on the anesthetic targets due to their simple, spherical shape. However, xenon has strong narcotic efficacy and can be used clinically, while other noble gases cannot. The mechanism remains unclear. Here, we performed molecular dynamics simulations on phospholipid bilayers with four kinds of noble gases to elucidate the difference of their effects on the membrane. Our results showed that the sequence of effects on membrane exerted by noble gases from weak to strong was Ne, Ar, Kr and Xe, the same order as their relative narcotic potencies as well as their lipid/water partition percentages. Compared with the other three kinds of noble gases, more xenon molecules were distributed between the lipid tails and headgroups, resulting in membrane's lateral expansion and lipid tail disorder. It may contribute to xenon's strong anesthetic potency. The results are well consistent with the membrane mediated mechanism of general anesthesia.
authors.affiliation: School of Sciences, Zhejiang A &F University, Lin'an 311300, China.|Zhejiang Provincial Key Laboratory of Chemical Utilization of Forestry Biomass, Zhejiang A &F University, Lin'an 311300, China.
authors.forename: Junlang
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: School of Sciences, Zhejiang A &F University, Lin'an 311300, China.|Shanghai Applied Radiation Institute, Shanghai University, Shanghai 200444, China.
authors.forename: Liang
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: School of Sciences, Zhejiang A &F University, Lin'an 311300, China.
authors.forename: Yu
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: School of Sciences, Zhejiang A &F University, Lin'an 311300, China.
authors.forename: Xiaogang
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: School of Information and Industry, Zhejiang A &F University, Lin'an 311300, China.
authors.forename: Songwei
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Zeng
mesh_terms: D008051:Lipid Bilayers / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000378:metabolism; D056004:Molecular Dynamics Simulation; D005741:Noble Gases / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000378:metabolism; D010714:Phosphatidylethanolamines / Q000737:chemistry; D010743:Phospholipids / Q000737:chemistry; D014867:Water / Q000737:chemistry
chemical_list: D008051:Lipid Bilayers; D005741:Noble Gases; D010714:Phosphatidylethanolamines; D010743:Phospholipids; D014867:Water; C057561:1-palmitoyl-2-oleoylphosphatidylethanolamine