Phospholipid Bilayer Nanodiscs: A Powerful Tool to Study the Structural Organization and Biochemical Reactivity of Proteins in Membrane-like Environments

Title:Phospholipid Bilayer Nanodiscs: A Powerful Tool to Study the Structural Organization and Biochemical Reactivity of Proteins in Membrane-like Environments

Volume: 14 Issue: 23

Author(s): Víctor M. Hernandez-Rocamora, Concepcion Garcia-Montanes and German Rivas

Affiliation:

Keywords: Biochemistry, Biophysics, Membrane-like systems, Membrane proteins, Membrane reconstitution, Protein-lipid interactions, Protein-protein interactions, Structural biology.

Abstract: Nanodiscs are disc-like structures formed by two copies of a membrane scaffold protein, engineered from apolipoprotein A-I, surrounding a phospholipid mixture that can incorporate membrane proteins preserving their natural properties. They behave as soluble entities allowing the use of high-resolution structural techniques to determine the structural organization of the embedded membrane protein, and the use of solution biochemical-biophysical tools to measure its activity, assembly and interactions with other proteins in membranelike environments. In addition, nanodiscs are biocompatible which makes them an attractive technology to be used in therapy, drug discovery, and other biotechnological applications.

Cite this article as:

Hernandez-Rocamora M. Víctor, Garcia-Montanes Concepcion and Rivas German, Phospholipid Bilayer Nanodiscs: A Powerful Tool to Study the Structural Organization and Biochemical Reactivity of Proteins in Membrane-like Environments, Current Topics in Medicinal Chemistry 2014; 14 (23) . https://dx.doi.org/10.2174/1568026614666141215142951