Interaction of tetanus toxin with lipid vesicles. Effects of pH, surface charge, and transmembrane potential on the kinetics of channel formation.

We investigated the interaction of tetanus toxin with small unilamellar vesicles composed of different phospholipids as a function of pH, toxin concentration, temperature, and ionic strength of the solution. Tetanus toxin increased the permeability of the vesicles to fluorescent markers of molecular weight up to 700. The time course of the permeabilization was described as the sum of two exponential components of which the faster accounts for more than 70% of the total effect. Both time constants decreased when the pH of the solution was lowered and when vesicles contained negative lipids. These results can be explained in terms of a phenomenological model based on reaction rate theory. The model assumes that tetanus toxin, after equilibrating with the local pH existing at the surface of the vesicles, inserts into the lipid bilayer forming an ionic channel through which solutes can diffuse. Trigger event for the insertion of the toxin is the protonation, and consequent neutralization of one charged group which makes the molecule more hydrophobic. The intrinsic pK of this group was found to be 3.4 +/- 0.2, suggesting that it may be a carboxyl group. Since the toxin equilibrates with the local pH, the enhancing effect of acidic phospholipids is merely explained by the creation of a negative surface potential which increases the local proton concentration. This was confirmed by the inhibitory effect of high Na+ concentration which reduced the surface charge by screening and specific binding. We found still small differences between the lipids tested and the following order of sensitivity to the action of the toxin: phosphatidylinositol greater than phosphatidylserine greater than phosphatidylcholine approximately cholesterol. The activation energy for the two time constants was found to be 19.8 and 14.8 kcal/mol, fast and slow component, respectively, i.e., slightly larger than that for pure diffusion through the bilayer. The permeabilization induced by tetanus toxin is a voltage-dependent process because vesicles bearing an inner negative potential were depolarized very quickly whereas those bearing an inner positive voltage were barely depolarized at all.