Quartz Crystal Microbalance With Dissipation Monitoring: A Versatile Tool to Monitor Phase Transitions in Biomimetic Membranes

Abstract

Solid-supported lipid membranes are popular models that connect biological and artificial materials used in biotechnological applications. Controlling the lipid organization and the related functions of these model systems entails understanding and characterizing their phase behavior. Quartz crystal microbalance with dissipation monitoring (QCM-D) is an acoustic-based surface-sensitive technique which is widely used in bio-interfacial science of solid-supported lipid membranes. Its sensitivity to mass and energy dissipation changes at the solid-lipid layer-liquid interface allows the detection of phase transformations of solid-supported membrane geometries. In this perspective, we highlight this valuable feature and its related methodology, review current advances and briefly discuss future perspectives. Furthermore, a specific example is also provided on the ability of QCM-D to detect changes in lipid organization of cholesterol containing solid-supported lipid vesicle layers (SVLs) upon the addition of aspirin.

Supported Lipid Membranes at the Au‐Buffer Interface by Solvent Exchange: The Effect of Initial Solvent Concentration

“…If a first‐order phase transition takes place in the adsorbed lipid layer, Δ f and Δ D responses display anomalies that deviate from their (linear) regular temperature dependence. In particular, Δ f and Δ D curves display jumps at a given temperature range, which, when numerically differentiated, yield transition peaks that resemble the ones obtained in calorimetric measurements . The mechanisms of phase transitions detections by QCM‐D were recently explained by Reviakine and co‐workers .…”

Application of QCM in Peptide and Protein-Based Drug Product Development

“…The present review is mainly focused on the latest QCM instruments’ achievements in protein and peptide drug product development, with general operations reduced to basic concepts. Detailed developments and properties of QCM instruments have already been extensively presented in the literature [ 35 , 54 , 55 ].…”

Real-Time Monitoring of Interactions between Solid-Supported Lipid Vesicle Layers and Short- and Medium-Chain Length Alcohols: Ethanol and 1-Pentanol

“…In the present study, we examined the interactions of supported vesicle layers (SVLs) of dipalmitoylphosphatidylcholine (DPPC) lipid preformed in 4-(2-hydroxyethyl)-1-piperazineethanesulfonic acid (HEPES) buffer with aqueous solutions of alcohols of different length, namely short-chain ethanol and medium-chain length 1-pentanol at the same concentrations. We used quartz crystal microbalance with dissipation monitoring (QCM-D), a label free surface-sensitive technique which, apart from monitoring real-time interactions with SVLs, allows the detection of phase transitions, a useful indicator of membrane organization and structural changes [23,24]. Supported vesicle layers are, together with supported lipid bilayers (SLBs) or tethered lipid bilayers (tSLBs) model biomembrane systems that find applications in bionanotechnology.…”

“…Specifically, SLVs have attracted attention in pharmaceutical applications as potential drug delivery systems or immunoassays for the detection of small molecules [25,26]. Furthermore, when using QCM-D, the frequency and dissipation changes and phase transition signatures are stronger for SVLs [24]. Alcohol solutions were added when lipids were at the gel phase and the temperature was later changed through the liquid disordered phase.…”