Observing a Model Ion Channel Gating Action in Model Cell Membranes in Real Time in Situ: Membrane Potential Change Induced Alamethicin Orientation Change

Ion channels play crucial roles in transport and regulatory functions of living cells. Understanding the gating mechanisms of these channels is important to understanding and treating diseases that have been linked to ion channels. One potential model peptide for studying the mechanism of ion channel gating is alamethicin, which adopts a split alpha/3(10)-helix structure and responds to changes in electric potential. In this study, sum frequency generation vibrational spectroscopy (SFG-VS), supplemented by attenuated total reflectance Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (ATR-FTIR), has been applied to characterize interactions between alamethicin (a model for larger channel proteins) and 1-palmitoyl-2-oleoyl-sn-glycero-3-phosphocholine (POPC) lipid bilayers in the presence of an electric potential across the membrane. The membrane potential difference was controlled by changing the pH of the solution in contact with the bilayer and was measured using fluorescence spectroscopy. The orientation angle of alamethicin in POPC lipid bilayers was then determined at different pH values using polarized SFG amide I spectra. Assuming that all molecules adopt the same orientation (a delta distribution), at pH = 6.7 the alpha-helix at the N-terminus and the 3(10)-helix at the C-terminus tilt at about 72 degrees (theta(1)) and 50 degrees (theta(2)) versus the surface normal, respectively. When pH increases to 11.9, theta(1) and theta(2) decrease to 56.5 degrees and 45 degrees, respectively. The delta distribution assumption was verified using a combination of SFG and ATR-FTIR measurements, which showed a quite narrow distribution in the angle of theta(1) for both pH conditions. This indicates that all alamethicin molecules at the surface adopt a nearly identical orientation in POPC lipid bilayers. The localized pH change in proximity to the bilayer modulates the membrane potential and thus induces a decrease in both the tilt and the bend angles of the two helices in alamethicin. This is the first reported application of SFG to the study of model ion channel gating mechanisms in model cell membranes.