No abstract

Pancratistatin (PST) is a natural antiviral alkaloid that has demonstrated specificity toward cancerous cells and explicitly targets the mitochondria. PST initiates apoptosis while leaving healthy, noncancerous cells unscathed. However, the manner by which PST induces apoptosis remains elusive and impedes the advancement of PST as a natural anticancer therapeutic agent. Herein, we use neutron spin−echo (NSE) spectroscopy, molecular dynamics (MD) simulations, and supporting small angle scattering techniques to study PST's effect on membrane dynamics using biologically representative model membranes. Our data suggests that PST stiffens the inner mitochondrial membrane (IMM) by being preferentially associated with cardiolipin, which would lead to the relocation and release of cytochrome c. Second, PST has an ordering effect on the lipids and disrupts their distribution within the IMM, which would interfere with the maintenance and functionality of the active forms of proteins in the electron transport chain. These previously unreported findings implicate PST's effect on mitochondrial apoptosis.

In this project, we developed an internet-based application, called Vesicle Viewer, to visualize and analyze small angle scattering data generated in the study of lipid bilayers. Vesicle Viewer models SAS data using the EZ-SDP model. In this way, key bilayer structural parameters, such as area per lipid and bilayer thickness, can be easily determined. This application primarily uses Django, a python package specialized for the development of robust web applications. In addition, several other libraries are used to support the more technical aspects of the project – notable examples are MatPlotLib (for graphs) and NumPy (for calculations). Without the barrier of downloading and installing software, the development of this web-based application will allow scientists all over the world to take advantage of this solution, regardless of their preferred operating system.

In this project, we developed an internet-based application, called Vesicle Viewer, to visualize and analyze small angle scattering data generated in the study of lipid bilayers. Vesicle Viewer models SAS data using the EZ-SDP model. In this way, key bilayer structural parameters, such as area per lipid and bilayer thickness, can be easily determined. This application primarily uses Django, a python package specialized for the development of robust web applications. In addition, several other libraries are used to support the more technical aspects of the project – notable examples are MatPlotLib (for graphs) and NumPy (for calculations). Without the barrier of downloading and installing software, the development of this web-based application will allow scientists all over the world to take advantage of this solution, regardless of their preferred operating system.