A New Class of Amphiphiles Bearing Rigid Hydrophobic Groups for Solubilization and Stabilization of Membrane Proteins

Abstract

Non-traditional amphiphiles: Conferring aqueous solubility on membrane proteins generally requires the use of a detergent or other amphiphilic agent. A new class of amphiphiles was synthesized, based on steroidal lipophilic groups, and evaluated with several membrane proteins. The results show that the new amphiphile, "glyco-diosgenin" (GDN see figure), confers enhanced stability to a variety of membrane proteins in solution relative to popular conventional detergents, such as dodecylmaltoside (DDM). Copyright © 2012 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.