Uptake and Translocation Mechanisms of Cationic Amino Derivatives Functionalized on Pristine C₆₀ by Lipid Membranes: A Molecular Dynamics Simulation Study

Bioactive molecules, cationic peptides among them, are nowadays well-recognized in modern pharmacology for their drug potential. However, they usually suffer from poor translocation across cell membranes, and specific drug carriers should be designed to circumvent this problem. In the present study, the uptake mechanism of fullerene bearing cationic ammonium groups by membranes modeled as lipid bilayers is investigated using extensive molecular dynamics simulations and free-energy calculations. Three main results issued from this work can be drawn. First, the fullerene core appears to be a good drug vector since it greatly enhances the uptake of the cationic groups by the membrane. Second, we show that the amino derivatives should be deprotonated at the lipid headgroup level in order to fully translocate the membrane by passive diffusion. Finally, the fullerenes bearing too many cationic groups display mostly a hydrophilic character; thus, the lipophilic fullerene core is not anymore effective as an insertion enhancer. Therefore, the lipid bilayer appears to be very selective with respect to the amount of amino groups conjugated with C(60).