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Full-Text Articles in Physical Chemistry
Saponin Penetration And Interactions With Membranes, Sarai Guerrero
Saponin Penetration And Interactions With Membranes, Sarai Guerrero
Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository
The saponin QS21 has been used and studied for years as an adjuvant agent to improve vaccines for both humans and animals. However, how the saponin interacts with the membrane and itself remains poorly understood. We studied the QS21-A majority isomer using all-atom classical molecular dynamics simulations in model bilayers composed of cholesterol and either DOPC or DPPC. As this is one of the few computational studies on QS21-A, we had very few resources to compare our results to. Nevertheless, we were able to gain insight into possible configurations that QS21-A takes after penetration, the effect of the bilayer on …
Using Molecular Dynamics To Study Qs21 Interactions And Penetration Of Lipid-Cholesterol Bilayers, Sarai Guerrero, Mikko Karttunen
Using Molecular Dynamics To Study Qs21 Interactions And Penetration Of Lipid-Cholesterol Bilayers, Sarai Guerrero, Mikko Karttunen
Western Research Forum
Saponins have been used as adjuvant agents for decades in vaccines and therapies, but none are as well studied or heavily used as QS-21. This achievement is notwithstanding the fact that QS-21 usage is limited by its stability, toxicity, and scarcity. These shortcomings have only pushed researchers to develop and experiment with artificial recreations of the saponin to harness its unique benefits. A considerable number of research hours have been poured into this topic, but like QS-21 there is a shortcoming here as well. The number of articles that look at QS-21 interactions with the bilayer or the conditions under …