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cleaned up the references and the tables in the lipid section. also spell checked the thing.

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# User Rev Content
1 mmeineke 971
2    
3     \chapter{\label{chapt:lipid}Phospholipid Simulations}
4    
5     \section{\label{lipidSec:Intro}Introduction}
6    
7 mmeineke 1001 In the past 10 years, computer speeds have allowed for the atomistic
8     simulation of phospholipid bilayers. These simulations have ranged
9     from simulation of the gel phase ($L_{\beta}$) of
10 mmeineke 1061 dipalmitoylphosphatidylcholine (DPPC),\cite{lindahl00} to the
11 mmeineke 1001 spontaneous aggregation of DPPC molecules into fluid phase
12 mmeineke 1061 ($L_{\alpha}$) bilayers.\cite{marrink01} With the exception of a few
13     ambitious
14     simulations,\cite{marrink01:undulation,marrink:2002,lindahl00} most
15 mmeineke 1001 investigations are limited to 64 to 256
16 mmeineke 1061 phospholipids.\cite{lindahl00,sum:2003,venable00,gomez:2003,smondyrev:1999,marrink01}
17 mmeineke 1001 This is due to the expense of the computer calculations involved when
18     performing these simulations. To properly hydrate a bilayer, one
19     typically needs 25 water molecules for every lipid, bringing the total
20     number of atoms simulated to roughly 8,000 for a system of 64 DPPC
21 mmeineke 1061 molecules. Added to the difficulty is the electrostatic nature of the
22 mmeineke 1001 phospholipid head groups and water, requiring the computationally
23     expensive Ewald sum or its slightly faster derivative particle mesh
24 mmeineke 1061 Ewald sum.\cite{nina:2002,norberg:2000,patra:2003} These factors all
25     limit the potential size and time lengths of bilayer simulations.
26 mmeineke 1001
27     Unfortunately, much of biological interest happens on time and length
28 mmeineke 1061 scales infeasible with current simulation. One such example is the
29     observance of a ripple phase ($P_{\beta^{\prime}}$) between the
30     $L_{\beta}$ and $L_{\alpha}$ phases of certain phospholipid
31     bilayers.\cite{katsaras00,sengupta00} These ripples are shown to
32 mmeineke 1001 have periodicity on the order of 100-200~$\mbox{\AA}$. A simulation on
33     this length scale would have approximately 1,300 lipid molecules with
34     an additional 25 water molecules per lipid to fully solvate the
35     bilayer. A simulation of this size is impractical with current
36     atomistic models.
37    
38     Another class of simulations to consider, are those dealing with the
39     diffusion of molecules through a bilayer. Due to the fluid-like
40     properties of a lipid membrane, not all diffusion across the membrane
41     happens at pores. Some molecules of interest may incorporate
42     themselves directly into the membrane. Once here, they may possess an
43     appreciable waiting time (on the order of 10's to 100's of
44 mmeineke 1061 nanoseconds) within the bilayer. Such long simulation times are
45 mmeineke 1001 difficulty to obtain when integrating the system with atomistic
46     detail.
47    
48     Addressing these issues, several schemes have been proposed. One
49 mmeineke 1061 approach by Goetz and Liposky\cite{goetz98} is to model the entire
50 mmeineke 1001 system as Lennard-Jones spheres. Phospholipids are represented by
51     chains of beads with the top most beads identified as the head
52     atoms. Polar and non-polar interactions are mimicked through
53     attractive and soft-repulsive potentials respectively. A similar
54 mmeineke 1061 model proposed by Marrinck \emph{et. al}.\cite{marrink04}~uses a
55 mmeineke 1001 similar technique for modeling polar and non-polar interactions with
56     Lennard-Jones spheres. However, they also include charges on the head
57     group spheres to mimic the electrostatic interactions of the
58     bilayer. While the solvent spheres are kept charge-neutral and
59     interact with the bilayer solely through an attractive Lennard-Jones
60     potential.
61    
62     The model used in this investigation adds more information to the
63 mmeineke 1026 interactions than the previous two models, while still balancing the
64     need for simplifications over atomistic detail. The model uses
65     Lennard-Jones spheres for the head and tail groups of the
66 mmeineke 1061 phospholipids, allowing for the ability to scale the parameters to
67 mmeineke 1026 reflect various sized chain configurations while keeping the number of
68     interactions small. What sets this model apart, however, is the use
69 mmeineke 1061 of dipoles to represent the electrostatic nature of the
70 mmeineke 1026 phospholipids. The dipole electrostatic interaction is shorter range
71 mmeineke 1061 than Coulombic ($\frac{1}{r^3}$ versus $\frac{1}{r}$), eliminating the
72 mmeineke 1026 need for a costly Ewald sum.
73 mmeineke 1001
74 mmeineke 1026 Another key feature of this model, is the use of a dipolar water model
75 mmeineke 1061 to represent the solvent. The soft sticky dipole ({\sc ssd}) water
76     \cite{liu96:new_model} relies on the dipole for long range electrostatic
77     effects, but also contains a short range correction for hydrogen
78     bonding. In this way the systems in this research mimic the entropic
79     contribution to the hydrophobic effect due to hydrogen-bond network
80     deformation around a non-polar entity, \emph{i.e.}~the phospholipid.
81 mmeineke 1026
82     The following is an outline of this chapter.
83 mmeineke 1061 Sec.~\ref{lipidSec:Methods} is an introduction to the lipid model
84 mmeineke 1026 used in these simulations. As well as clarification about the water
85     model and integration techniques. The various simulation setups
86     explored in this research are outlined in
87     Sec.~\ref{lipidSec:ExpSetup}. Sec.~\ref{lipidSec:Results} and
88     Sec.~\ref{lipidSec:Discussion} give a summary of the results and
89     interpretation of those results respectively. Finally, the
90     conclusions of this chapter are presented in
91     Sec.~\ref{lipidSec:Conclusion}.
92    
93 mmeineke 971 \section{\label{lipidSec:Methods}Methods}
94    
95 mmeineke 1026 \subsection{\label{lipidSec:lipidModel}The Lipid Model}
96    
97 mmeineke 971 \begin{figure}
98 mmeineke 1061 \centering
99     \includegraphics[width=\linewidth]{twoChainFig.eps}
100     \caption[The two chained lipid model]{Schematic diagram of the double chain phospholipid model. The head group (in red) has a point dipole, $\boldsymbol{\mu}$, located at its center of mass. The two chains are eight methylene groups in length.}
101 mmeineke 971 \label{lipidFig:lipidModel}
102     \end{figure}
103    
104     The phospholipid model used in these simulations is based on the
105     design illustrated in Fig.~\ref{lipidFig:lipidModel}. The head group
106     of the phospholipid is replaced by a single Lennard-Jones sphere of
107 mmeineke 1061 diameter $\sigma_{\text{head}}$, with $\epsilon_{\text{head}}$ scaling
108     the well depth of its van der Walls interaction. This sphere also
109     contains a single dipole of magnitude $|\boldsymbol{\mu}|$, where
110     $|\boldsymbol{\mu}|$ can be varied to mimic the charge separation of a
111 mmeineke 971 given phospholipid head group. The atoms of the tail region are
112     modeled by unified atom beads. They are free of partial charges or
113     dipoles, containing only Lennard-Jones interaction sites at their
114     centers of mass. As with the head groups, their potentials can be
115 mmeineke 1061 scaled by $\sigma_{\text{tail}}$ and $\epsilon_{\text{tail}}$.
116 mmeineke 971
117     The long range interactions between lipids are given by the following:
118     \begin{equation}
119 mmeineke 1061 V_{\text{LJ}}(r_{ij}) =
120     4\epsilon_{ij} \biggl[
121     \biggl(\frac{\sigma_{ij}}{r_{ij}}\biggr)^{12}
122     - \biggl(\frac{\sigma_{ij}}{r_{ij}}\biggr)^{6}
123     \biggr]
124 mmeineke 971 \label{lipidEq:LJpot}
125     \end{equation}
126     and
127     \begin{equation}
128 mmeineke 1061 V_{\text{dipole}}(\mathbf{r}_{ij},\boldsymbol{\Omega}_{i},
129     \boldsymbol{\Omega}_{j}) = \frac{|\mu_i||\mu_j|}{4\pi\epsilon_{0}r_{ij}^{3}} \biggl[
130     \boldsymbol{\hat{u}}_{i} \cdot \boldsymbol{\hat{u}}_{j}
131     -
132     \frac{3(\boldsymbol{\hat{u}}_i \cdot \mathbf{r}_{ij}) %
133     (\boldsymbol{\hat{u}}_j \cdot \mathbf{r}_{ij}) }
134     {r^{2}_{ij}} \biggr]
135 mmeineke 971 \label{lipidEq:dipolePot}
136     \end{equation}
137     Where $V_{\text{LJ}}$ is the Lennard-Jones potential and
138     $V_{\text{dipole}}$ is the dipole-dipole potential. As previously
139     stated, $\sigma_{ij}$ and $\epsilon_{ij}$ are the Lennard-Jones
140     parameters which scale the length and depth of the interaction
141     respectively, and $r_{ij}$ is the distance between beads $i$ and $j$.
142     In $V_{\text{dipole}}$, $\mathbf{r}_{ij}$ is the vector starting at
143     bead$i$ and pointing towards bead $j$. Vectors $\mathbf{\Omega}_i$
144     and $\mathbf{\Omega}_j$ are the orientational degrees of freedom for
145     beads $i$ and $j$. $|\mu_i|$ is the magnitude of the dipole moment of
146     $i$, and $\boldsymbol{\hat{u}}_i$ is the standard unit orientation
147     vector of $\boldsymbol{\Omega}_i$.
148    
149 mmeineke 1061 The model also allows for the bonded interactions bends, and torsions.
150     The bond between two beads on a chain is of fixed length, and is
151     maintained according to the {\sc rattle} algorithm.\cite{andersen83}
152 mmeineke 971 The bends are subject to a harmonic potential:
153     \begin{equation}
154 mmeineke 1061 V_{\text{bend}}(\theta) = k_{\theta}( \theta - \theta_0 )^2
155 mmeineke 971 \label{lipidEq:bendPot}
156     \end{equation}
157 mmeineke 1061 where $k_{\theta}$ scales the strength of the harmonic well, and
158     $\theta$ is the angle between bond vectors
159     (Fig.~\ref{lipidFig:lipidModel}). In addition, we have placed a
160     ``ghost'' bend on the phospholipid head. The ghost bend adds a
161     potential to keep the dipole pointed along the bilayer surface, where
162     $theta$ is now the angle the dipole makes with respect to the {\sc
163     head}-$\text{{\sc ch}}_2$ bond vector. The torsion potential is given
164     by:
165 mmeineke 971 \begin{equation}
166 mmeineke 1061 V_{\text{torsion}}(\phi) =
167     k_3 \cos^3 \phi + k_2 \cos^2 \phi + k_1 \cos \phi + k_0
168 mmeineke 971 \label{lipidEq:torsionPot}
169     \end{equation}
170     Here, the parameters $k_0$, $k_1$, $k_2$, and $k_3$ fit the cosine
171     power series to the desired torsion potential surface, and $\phi$ is
172 mmeineke 1061 the angle the two end atoms have rotated about the middle bond
173     (Fig.:\ref{lipidFig:lipidModel}). Long range interactions such as the
174     Lennard-Jones potential are excluded for atom pairs involved in the
175     same bond, bend, or torsion. However, internal interactions not
176 mmeineke 971 directly involved in a bonded pair are calculated.
177    
178 mmeineke 1026 All simulations presented here use a two chained lipid as pictured in
179 mmeineke 1061 Fig.~\ref{lipidFig:lipidModel}. The chains are both eight beads long,
180 mmeineke 1026 and their mass and Lennard Jones parameters are summarized in
181     Table~\ref{lipidTable:tcLJParams}. The magnitude of the dipole moment
182     for the head bead is 10.6~Debye, and the bend and torsion parameters
183 mmeineke 1061 are summarized in Table~\ref{lipidTable:tcBendParams} and
184     \ref{lipidTable:tcTorsionParams}.
185 mmeineke 971
186 mmeineke 1061 \begin{table}
187     \caption{The Lennard Jones Parameters for the two chain phospholipids.}
188     \label{lipidTable:tcLJParams}
189     \begin{center}
190     \begin{tabular}{|l|c|c|c|}
191     \hline
192     & mass (amu) & $\sigma$($\mbox{\AA}$) & $\epsilon$ (kcal/mol) \\ \hline
193     {\sc head} & 72 & 4.0 & 0.185 \\ \hline
194     {\sc ch}\cite{Siepmann1998} & 13.02 & 4.0 & 0.0189 \\ \hline
195     $\text{{\sc ch}}_2$\cite{Siepmann1998} & 14.03 & 3.95 & 0.18 \\ \hline
196     $\text{{\sc ch}}_3$\cite{Siepmann1998} & 15.04 & 3.75 & 0.25 \\ \hline
197     {\sc ssd}\cite{liu96:new_model} & 18.03 & 3.051 & 0.152 \\ \hline
198     \end{tabular}
199     \end{center}
200     \end{table}
201 mmeineke 1026
202 mmeineke 1061 \begin{table}
203     \caption[Bend Parameters for the two chain phospholipids]{Bend Parameters for the two chain phospholipids. All alkane parameters are based off of those from TraPPE.\cite{Siepmann1998}}
204     \label{lipidTable:tcBendParams}
205     \begin{center}
206     \begin{tabular}{|l|c|c|}
207     \hline
208     & $k_{\theta}$ ( kcal/($\text{mol deg}^2$) ) & $\theta_0$ ( deg ) \\ \hline
209     {\sc ghost}-{\sc head}-$\text{{\sc ch}}_2$ & 0.00177 & 129.78 \\ \hline
210     $x$-{\sc ch}-$y$ & 58.84 & 112.0 \\ \hline
211     $x$-$\text{{\sc ch}}_2$-$y$ & 58.84 & 114.0 \\ \hline
212     \end{tabular}
213     \end{center}
214     \end{table}
215    
216     \begin{table}
217     \caption[Torsion Parameters for the two chain phospholipids]{Torsion Parameters for the two chain phospholipids. Alkane parameters based on TraPPE.\cite{Siepmann1998}}
218     \label{lipidTable:tcTorsionParams}
219     \begin{center}
220     \begin{tabular}{|l|c|c|c|c|}
221     \hline
222     All are in kcal/mol $\rightarrow$ & $k_3$ & $k_2$ & $k_1$ & $k_0$ \\ \hline
223     $x$-{\sc ch}-$y$-$z$ & 3.3254 & -0.4215 & -1.686 & 1.1661 \\ \hline
224     $x$-$\text{{\sc ch}}_2$-$\text{{\sc ch}}_2$-$y$ & 5.9602 & -0.568 & -3.802 & 2.1586 \\ \hline
225     \end{tabular}
226     \end{center}
227     \end{table}
228    
229    
230     \section{\label{lipidSec:furtherMethod}Further Methodology}
231    
232 mmeineke 1026 As mentioned previously, the water model used throughout these
233 mmeineke 1061 simulations was the {\sc ssd} model of
234     Ichiye.\cite{liu96:new_model,liu96:monte_carlo,chandra99:ssd_md} A
235     discussion of the model can be found in Sec.~\ref{oopseSec:SSD}. As
236     for the integration of the equations of motion, all simulations were
237     performed in an orthorhombic periodic box with a thermostat on
238     velocities, and an independent barostat on each Cartesian axis $x$,
239     $y$, and $z$. This is the $\text{NPT}_{xyz}$. ensemble described in
240     Sec.~\ref{oopseSec:Ensembles}.
241 mmeineke 1026
242    
243     \subsection{\label{lipidSec:ExpSetup}Experimental Setup}
244    
245     Two main starting configuration classes were used in this research:
246     random and ordered bilayers. The ordered bilayer starting
247     configurations were all started from an equilibrated bilayer at
248     300~K. The original configuration for the first 300~K run was
249     assembled by placing the phospholipids centers of mass on a planar
250     hexagonal lattice. The lipids were oriented with their long axis
251     perpendicular to the plane. The second leaf simply mirrored the first
252     leaf, and the appropriate number of waters were then added above and
253     below the bilayer.
254    
255     The random configurations took more work to generate. To begin, a
256     test lipid was placed in a simulation box already containing water at
257     the intended density. The waters were then tested for overlap with
258     the lipid using a 5.0~$\mbox{\AA}$ buffer distance. This gave an
259     estimate for the number of waters each lipid would displace in a
260     simulation box. A target number of waters was then defined which
261     included the number of waters each lipid would displace, the number of
262     waters desired to solvate each lipid, and a fudge factor to pad the
263     initialization.
264    
265     Next, a cubic simulation box was created that contained at least the
266     target number of waters in an FCC lattice (the lattice was for ease of
267     placement). What followed was a RSA simulation similar to those of
268     Chapt.~\ref{chapt:RSA}. The lipids were sequentially given a random
269     position and orientation within the box. If a lipid's position caused
270     atomic overlap with any previously adsorbed lipid, its position and
271     orientation were rejected, and a new random adsorption site was
272     attempted. The RSA simulation proceeded until all phospholipids had
273     been adsorbed. After adsorption, all water molecules with locations
274     that overlapped with the atomic coordinates of the lipids were
275     removed.
276    
277     Finally, water molecules were removed one by one at random until the
278     desired number of waters per lipid was reached. The typical low final
279     density for these initial configurations was not a problem, as the box
280     would shrink to an appropriate size within the first 50~ps of a
281     simulation in the $\text{NPT}_{xyz}$ ensemble.
282    
283     \subsection{\label{lipidSec:Configs}The simulation configurations}
284    
285     Table ~\ref{lipidTable:simNames} summarizes the names and important
286     details of the simulations. The B set of simulations were all started
287 mmeineke 1061 in an ordered bilayer and observed over a period of 10~ns. Simulation
288 mmeineke 1026 RL was integrated for approximately 20~ns starting from a random
289     configuration as an example of spontaneous bilayer aggregation.
290     Lastly, simulation RH was also started from a random configuration,
291     but with a lesser water content and higher temperature to show the
292 mmeineke 1061 spontaneous aggregation of an inverted hexagonal lamellar phase.