AUTHOR=Ke Lijing , Luo Sihao , Rao Pingfan , Bradshaw Jeremy P. , Sa'adedin Farid , Rappolt Michael , Zhou Jianwu 

TITLE=An Evidence for a Novel Antiviral Mechanism: Modulating Effects of Arg-Glc Maillard Reaction Products on the Phase Transition of Multilamellar Vesicles

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Cell and Developmental Biology

VOLUME=Volume 8 - 2020

YEAR=2021

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/cell-and-developmental-biology/articles/10.3389/fcell.2020.629775

DOI=10.3389/fcell.2020.629775

ISSN=2296-634X

ABSTRACT=Maillard reaction products (MRPs) of protein, amino acids and reducing sugars from many foods and aqueous extracts of herbs are found to have various bioactivities, including antiviral effects. A hypothesis was proposed that their antiviral activity is due to the interaction with cellular membrane. Aiming to estimate the possible actions of MRPs on phospholipids bilayers, the Arg-Glc MRPs were prepared by boiling the pre-mixed solution of arginine and glucose for 60 min at 100˚C, then examined at a serial of concentrations for their effects on the phase transition of MeDOPE multilamellar vesicles (MLVs), for the first time, by using differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and temperature-resolved small-angel X-ray scattering (SAXS). 
Arg-Glc MRPs inhibited the lamellar gel-liquid crystal (Lβ-Lα), lamellar liquid crystal-cubic (Lα-QII) and lamellar liquid crystal-inverted hexagonal (Lα-HII) phase transitions at the low concentration (molar ratio of lipid v.s. MRPs was 100:1 or 100:2), but promoted all the three transitions at the medium concentration (100:5). At the high concentration (10:1), the MRPs’ exhibited inhibitory effect again. The fusion peptide from simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV) induces membrane fusion by promoting the formation of non-lamellar phase, e.g. cubic (QII) phase, and inhibiting the transition to HII. Arg-Glc MRPs, at the low concentration, stabilised the lamellar structure of SIV peptide containing lipid bilayers, but facilitated the formation of non-lamellar phases at the medium concentration (100:5). The concentration-dependent activity of MRPs upon lipid phase transition indiciates a potential role in modulating some membrane-related biological events, e.g. viral membrane fusion.