Arginine-based surfactants alter the rheological and in-plane structural properties of stratum corneum model membranes

HERMET, M.; YANIS ESPINOSA, R.; FAIT, M.E.; DE LAS ZULUETA DÍAZ, M.Y.; MORCELLE, S.R.; BAKÁS, L.; ÁLVAREZ, A.; FANANI, M.L.

JOURNAL OF COLLOID AND INTERFACE SCIENCE

ACADEMIC PRESS INC ELSEVIER SCIENCE

Lugar: Amsterdam; Año: 2022

0021-9797

Hypothesis. Amino acid-based surfactants have been proposed as skin permeationenhancers. In this work, we investigated the potentiality of two arginine-basedamphiphiles as permeation enhancers by studying their interaction with stratumcorneum (SC) model lipid membranes.Experiments. Nα-benzoyl arginine decyl- and dodecylamide were tested incomparison with the classical enhancer, oleic acid, and the non-enhancer, stearicacid. Two complementary approaches were used: lipid monolayers, taken as modelsof the unit film layer of SC, and atomistic molecular dynamics simulations.Findings. The arginine-based amphiphiles studied were able to be incorporated intothe SCM membrane and alter its rheological and structural properties by disorderingthe lipid chains, enhancing membrane elasticity, and thinning the overall membrane.They also affected the lateral structure of heterogeneous SC membranes at thenanoscale by relaxing and rounding the domain borders. Our work shows that thealteration observed of the overall rheological and structural properties of the SCmembranes appears to be a shared ability for several amphiphilic permeationenhancers. Our results encourage future exploration of those amphiphiles as skinpermeation enhancers.