Differences in the interaction of the polyene antibiotic amphotericin B with cholesterol- or ergosterol-containing phospholipid vesicles. A circular dichroism and permeability study.

The selective toxicity of the polyene antibiotic amphotericin B between pathogenic eukaryotic organisms and animal cells has often been said to originate in the presence of ergosterol in fungal membranes instead of cholesterol, found in membranes of animal cells. We have tested this hypothesis by measuring the proton efflux induced by amphotericin B in egg yolk phosphatidylcholine small unilamellar vesicles. By measuring circular dichroism under the same conditions, we monitored the interaction of the antibiotic and its conformational changes. Sterol-free vesicles are sensitive to amphotericin B, but the sensitivity of sterol-containing vesicles is always greater and increasingly so with increasing sterol concentration. Ergosterol-containing vesicles are more sensitive than cholesterol-containing vesicles. On the other hand, numerous amphotericin B conformers can be detected in sterol-containing vesicles, depending upon both the concentration of sterol and the amphotericin B sterol ratio. It appears that one conformer, or maybe two at high amphotericin B concentration, is responsible for the induced permeability. From their circular dichroism spectra, these two conformers are the same in the presence of ergosterol or cholesterol. The concentration of amphotericin B necessary to obtain the two conformers is higher with cholesterol than with ergosterol, which agrees with the permeability results.