Transport of the highly charged myo-inositol hexakisphosphate molecule across the red blood cell membrane: a phase transfer and biological study.

To address the problem of delivering highly charged small molecules, such as phytic acid (InsP(6) or IHP), across biological membranes, we investigated an approach based on a non-covalent interaction between transport molecule(s) and IHP. Thus, we synthesized a collection of compounds containing IHP ionically bound to lipophilic (but non-lipidic) ammonium or poly-ammonium cations. First, we assessed the ability of these water-soluble salts to cross a biological membrane by measuring the partition coefficients between human serum and 1-octanol.

A liposome-based therapeutic vaccine against beta -amyloid plaques on the pancreas of transgenic NORBA mice.

Immune tolerance to beta-amyloid (Abeta) was broken in NORBA transgenic mice presenting Abeta plaques on their pancreases. Vaccination of Black C57, BALB/c, and NORBA mice with the synthetic Abeta(1-16) sequence modified by covalently attaching two palmitoyl residues at each end of the peptide, subsequently reconstituted in liposomes-Lipid A elicited titers of 1:5,000 of anti-Abeta(1-16) antibodies within 10 weeks after the first inoculation. On direct interaction, sera with antibody titers of 1:5,000 solubilized in vitro up to 80% of preformed Abeta(1-42) aggregates.