A SANS investigation on micelles from short-chain phospholiponucleosides

Short chain lecithin nucleosidic derivatives have been synthesized through an enzymatic pathway and their aggregational properties in water solution have been investigated by means of SANS. Micellar solutions formed by diC(8) P-Ade and diC(8)P-Uri have been studied as a function of pH, ionic strength and amphiphile concentration. Remarkable differences from the aggregational behavior of homologous phosphocholines are observed, since the concentration-dependent micellar growth is not displayed with phospholiponucleosides. A spectroscopic investigation of base/base interactions in micellar solutions has highlighted that complementary bases are able either to stack and to hydrogen bond on the micellar surface, thus reproducing in a dynamic structure the characteristics of macromolecular polynucleotides. A possible correlation of this property with structural data as obtained by SANS is proposed. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.