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Chemicals in tea may sink or swim at the cell membrane
Posted on 2008-Aug-5 at 04:27 - Post Comment
chemical Previous work has shown that catechins operate at thecellular-molecular level by interacting with components of cellmembranes. Catechins can prevent binding of enzymes, cause a changein the membrane potential, or increase the membrane's permeabilityto certain ions. Exactly how the various chemical structures ofcatechins interact with the cell membranes was unknown. To gainfurther insight, researchers examined the dynamics and binding ofcatechins through computer simulations and presented their work inan advanced article from the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry.The researchers performed molecular dynamic simulations for sevenpopular catechins (Figure 1) and focused on molecular parameterslike hydrogen bonding, adsorption, absorption, molecularorientation, and presence of functional groups. They used anall-atom molecular representation for the catechins, a phospholipidmembrane, and water to calculate the atomic forces on each atom asthey interact with one another. Out of the seven catechins, three absorbed (C, EC, and EGCG) intothe cell membrane, while the other four adsorbed onto its surface.The membrane surface catechins remained flexible and could diffuseacross the surface by forming and breaking hydrogen bonds. However,the absorbed catechins had extremely limited mobility because theywere trapped within the bilayer.
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