Carbohydrate modified catanionic vesicles: probing multivalent binding at the bilayer interface.

This article reports on the synthesis, characterization, and binding studies of surface-functionalized, negatively charged catanionic vesicles. These studies demonstrate that the distribution of glycoconjugates in the membrane leaflet can be controlled by small alterations of the chemical structure of the conjugate. The ability to control the glycoconjugate concentration in the membrane provides a method to explore the relationship between ligand separation distance and multivalent lectin binding at the bilayer interface. The binding results using the O-linked glucosyl conjugate were consistent with a simple model in which binding kinetics are governed by the density of noninteracting glucose ligands, whereas the N-linked glycoconjugate exhibited binding kinetics consistent with interacting or clustering conjugates. From the noninteracting ligand model, an effective binding site separation of the sugar sites for concanavalin A of 3.6-4.3 nm was determined and a critical ligand density above which binding kinetics are zeroth order with respect to the amount of glycoconjugate present at the bilayer was observed. We also report cryo-transmission electron microscopy (cryo-TEM) images of conjugated vesicles showing morphological changes (multilayering) upon aggregation of unilamellar vesicles with concanavalin A.