Boronic acid mediated ion transport through bilayer membranes

Abstract

All cells of cellular organisms need to communicate with each other and their surroundings. Generally cellular communication occurs by moving substances into or out of the cell through the cell membrane via ion channels or ionophores. We wished to mimic this ion transport behaviour using some boronate synthetic ionophores containing cholate. These were new compounds and it was unclear if they transported ions through a carrier or channel mechanism. To investigate the mechanism both hydroxypyrene trisulfonate (HPTS) and U-tube assays were carried out; the latter suggested a carrier mechanism. Furthermore we wished to observe if ion transport by the boronic acid was affected by the presence of sugar, and found a strong decrease in ion transport caused by fructose. Finally an unsuccessful resynthesis of these boronate ionophores containing cholate was attempted.

Date of Award	1 Aug 2013
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	The University of Manchester
Supervisor	Simon Webb (Supervisor)