Brominated Lipids
Avanti offers several brominated fatty-acid modified phosphatidylcholine (PC) derivatives. These brominated PCs are especially useful for investigating the structure of membrane-bound proteins using fluorescence quenching techniques. Brominated PCs are used as the fluorescent quencher in fluorescent quenching techniques. Fluorescent quenching refers to any process that decreases the fluorescence intensity of a sample and is used to measure the binding affinity between a ligand and a protein. A fluorescent decreasing interaction can be induced by any number of molecular interactions with a quencher molecule. Brominated PCs mimic their non-brominated, unsaturated counterparts. Reports indicate that liposomes prepared from brominated PCs behave similarly to the corresponding non-brominated PC with regards to fluidity and activity.
Everett, James & Zlotnick, Adam & Tennyson, J & Holloway, P. (1986). Fluorescence quenching of cytochrome b5 in vesicles with an asymmetric transbilayer distribution of brominated phosphatidylcholine. The Journal of biological chemistry. 261. 6725-9.
Montigny, C. et al. Slow phospholipid exchange between a detergent-solubilized membrane protein and lipid-detergent mixed micelles: Brominated phospholipids as tools to follow its kinetics. PLoS One 12, e0170481.