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A certain proportion of docosahexaenoic acid tends to revert structural and dynamical effects of cholesterol on lipid membranes.

Laboratorio de Fisicoquímica, INQUISUR, Departamento de Química, Universidad Nacional del Sur (UNS)-CONICET, Av. Alem 1253, 8000 Bahía Blanca, Buenos Aires, Argentina. Laboratorio de Fisicoquímica, INQUISUR, Departamento de Química, Universidad Nacional del Sur (UNS)-CONICET, Av. Alem 1253, 8000 Bahía Blanca, Buenos Aires, Argentina. Electronic address: mamorini@criba.edu.ar.

Biochimica et biophysica acta. Biomembranes. 2021;(6):183584
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Abstract

This work investigates how docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) modifies the effect of Cholesterol (Chol) on the structural and dynamical properties of dipalmitoylphosphatidylcholine (DPPC) membrane. We employ low-cost and non-invasive methods: zeta potential (ZP), conductivity, density, and ultrasound velocity, complemented by molecular dynamics simulations. Our studies reveal that 30% of DHA added to the DPPC-Chol system tends to revert Chol action on a model lipid bilayer. Results obtained in this work shed light on the effect of polyunsaturated fatty acids - particularly DHA - on lipid membranes, with potential preventive applications in many diseases, e.g. neuronal as, Alzheimer's disease, and viral, as Covid-19.