Transmembrane Molecular Recognition

15 June 2015

Perfluorohexane gas when introduced in the air atmosphere above a film of phospholipid self-supported on an aqueous solution of C2F5-labelled compounds causes the recruitment and immobilization of the latter in the interfacial film. When the phospholipid forms a liquid-condensed Gibbs monolayer, which is the case for dipalmitoylphosphatidylcholine (DPPC), the fluorinated molecules remain trapped in the monolayer after removal of perfluorohexane. The new phenomenon was utilized to incorporate a hypoxia biomarker in microbubble shells. The selected biomarker is a fluorinated nitrosoimidazole (EF5) that is tested in the clinic as a probe for positron emission tomography. This finding opens perspectives in the delivery of fluorinated therapeutic molecules and biomarkers.

Check our last VIP article in Angewandte Chemie:

Recruitment and Immobilization of a Fluorinated Biomarker Across an Interfacial Phospholipid Film using a Fluorocarbon Gas
Yang, G. ; O'Duill, M. ; Gouverneur, V. ; Krafft, M. P. Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2015, 54, 8402-8406.