STAND: Surface Tension for Aggregation Number Determination.

Taking advantage of the extremely high dependence of surface tension on the concentration of amphiphilic molecules in aqueous solution, a new model based on the double equilibrium between free and aggregated molecules in the liquid phase and between free molecules in the liquid phase and those adsorbed at the air/liquid interface is presented and validated using literature data and fluorescence measurements. A key point of the model is the use of both the Langmuir isotherm and the Gibbs adsorption equation in terms of free molecules instead of the nominal concentration of the solute. The application of the model should be limited to non ionic compounds since it does not consider the presence of counterions.

Key structural arrangements at the C-terminus domain of CETP suggest a potential mechanism for lipid-transfer activity.

The cholesteryl-ester transfer protein (CETP) promotes cholesteryl-ester and triglyceride transfer between lipoproteins. We evaluated the secondary structure stability of a series of small peptides derived from the C-terminus of CETP in a wide range of pH's and lipid mixtures, and studied their capability to carry out disorder-to-order secondary structure transitions dependent of lipids. We report that while a mixture of phosphatidylcholine/cholesteryl-esters forms large aggregated particles, the inclusion of a series of CETP carboxy-terminal peptides in a stable α-helix conformation, allows the formation of small homogeneous micelle-like structures.

A critical approach to the thermodynamic characterization of inclusion complexes: multiple-temperature isothermal titration calorimetric studies of native cyclodextrins with sodium dodecyl sulfate.

Inclusion complexes based on native cyclodextrins are basic building blocks for the design of a new generation of promising materials. The design process can be optimized by maximizing the population of the desired chemical species. This is greatly facilitated by an accurate characterization of the thermodynamic parameters for their formation.

Similarities and differences between cyclodextrin-sodium dodecyl sulfate host-guest complexes of different stoichiometries: molecular dynamics simulations at several temperatures.

An extensive dynamic and structural characterization of the supramolecular complexes that can be formed by mixing α-, β-, and γ-cyclodextrin (CD) with sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) in water at 283, 298, and 323 K was performed by means of computational molecular dynamics simulations. For each CD at the three temperatures, seven different initial conformations were used, generating a total of 63 trajectories. The observed stoichiometries, intermolecular distances, and relative orientation of the individual molecules in the complexes, as well as the most important interactions which contribute to their stability and the role of the solvent water molecules were studied in detail, revealing clear differences and similarities between the three CDs.