Two sides of the coin. Part 2. Colloid and surface science meets real biointerfaces

Abstract

Part 1 revisited developments in lipid and surfactant self assembly over the past 40 years [1]. New concepts emerged. Here we explore how these developments can be used to make sense of and bring order to a range of complex biological phenomena. Together with Part 1, this contribution is a fundamental revision of intuition at the boundaries of Colloid Science and Biological interfaces from a perspective of nearly 50 years. We offer new insights on a unified treatment of self assembly of lipids, surfactants and proteins in the light of developments presented in Part 1. These were in the enabling disciplines in molecular forces, hydration, oil and electrolyte specificity; and in the role of non Euclidean geometries-across the whole gammut of physical, colloid and surface chemistry, biophysics and membrane biology and medicine. It is where the early founders of the cell theory of biology and the physiologists expected advances to occur as D'Arcy Thompson predicted us 100 years ago.

Structure and function of the endothelial surface layer: unraveling the nanoarchitecture of biological surfaces

“…Atmospheric gas: a missing player A factor completely missed in theory is a physical (as opposed to a biochemical) role for dissolved gas (Mazumdar, 2002;Ninham and Nostro, 2010;Ninham, 2017;Ninham et al, 2017aNinham et al, , 2017b). This hidden variable shows up in several ways:…”

“…What is occurring is a phase change triggered by the low molecular weight thiols such as fMLPs in the microstructure of the eGC. This is a re-run of the phase changes in self assembled cell lipid membrane structures that underlies anesthetic action, propagation of the nerve impulse, immuno-suppression by cationic surfactants and pheromone action (Ninham et al, 2017a(Ninham et al, , 2017b. Transitions from closed e.g.…”

“…Transitions from closed e.g. multiple lamellae, to open bicontinuous phases occur with extravagant ease, induced by cosurfactants or changes in physico-chemical conditions (Ninham et al, 2017a(Ninham et al, , 2017b. There is a unifying predictive theory and these matters are well understood.…”

Ascorbyl‐6‐O‐oleate: A Bioconjugate Antioxidant Lipid

“…Variation of solution conditions like pH, surfactant and salt concentration, ion pair, temperature, and solvent compostion, allow VES amphiphiles to form a rich diversity of nanostructures. These are determined by a surfactant packing parameter ( p ) …”

“…Packing parameter. In order to predict the shape of the aggegates formed by Asc‐OL in water we estimated the packing parameter p of the surfactant which is given by: …”