Molecular organisation of amphotericin B at the air-water interface in the presence of sterols: a monolayer study

Abstract

Using the monolayer technique to study the surface behaviour of systems consisting of amphotericin B (AmB) and various sterols, the components were found to interact with each other. The interactions observed are accounted for by postulating that, at low surface pressures, AmB and different sterols form mixed films where the former lies parallel and the latter normal to the air-water interface in such a way that the polar groups in both components establish hydrogen bonds that lead to the formation of an AmB-sterol 'complex' of 2:1 stoichiometry at the interface. At high surface pressures, AmB molecules rearrange themselves normal to the interface; this gives rise to the Van der Waals interactions between non-polar chains of both components that vary with the nature and composition of the system. The occurrence of these hydrophobic interactions prevents the desorption of AmB into the subphase, which is consistent with the positive excess areas of mixing obtained under these surface pressure conditions. Among the four sterols studied, ergosterol exhibits the strongest interaction with AmB and beta-sitosterol the weakest. Cholesterol and stigmasterol show intermediate behaviour.