Interaction of local anaesthetic articaine enantiomers with brain lipids: a Langmuir monolayer study.

The interactions of the racemic mixture of articaine as well as pure (R)-articaine and pure (S)-articaine with monolayers of glycerophospholipids and brain lipids have been studied using the Langmuir monolayer technique. Articaine was added to the glycerophospholipids dipalmitoylphosphatidylcholine (DPPC), dipalmitoylphosphatidylserine (DPPS), 1-palmitoyl-2-oleoylphosphatidylserine (POPS) and total lipid extract from pig brain (TLPB). The amount of articaine in the monolayers was 30 mol%. The intercalation of each of the two enantiomers of articaine into a glycerophospholipid/brain lipid monolayers composed of chiral phospholipids will be diastereoisomeric in nature, hence different intercalation pattern for the two enantiomers can be expected. All the articaine species are found to intercalate into the DPPC monolayer and to increase the monolayer stability, this is most pronounced for the (R)-enantiomer. Intercalation of the articaine species into the DPPS monolayer increases the MMA and hardly affects the stability of the DPPS monolayer. In this monolayer, the articaine species intercalates into the head group region of the small and negatively charged serine head group, this is pronounced for the (R)-enantiomer. Our results indicate that by introducing an unsaturated acyl chain in the monolayer as in POPS, the monolayer discriminates between the articaine species. The (R)-enantiomer is located deep in the acyl chain region, whereas the (S)-enantiomer is found at or close to the head group. The data also might indicate that the (R)-enantiomer in the racemic mixture forms dimers in the POPS monolayer. Both articaine species as well as the racemic mixture intercalate into the monolayer of TLPB. Intercalation into this monolayer did not show any distinct difference in intercalation mode of the articaine species, probably due to camouflaging effect of large head groups like gangliosides and/or formation of lipid rafts in the monolayer. However, the (R)-enantiomer appears to intercalate better into the TLPB monolayer than the (S)-enantiomer. With proper standardization the Langmuir monolayer technique is a powerful method to discriminate between (R)- and (S)-enantiomer articaine interaction with model membranes.