Rapid and Resilient Detection of Toxin Pore Formation Using a Lipid Bilayer Array

An artificial cell membrane is applied to study the pore formation mechanisms of bacterial pore-forming toxins for therapeutic applications. Electrical monitoring of ionic current across the membrane provides information on the pore formation process of toxins at the single pore level, as well as the pore characteristics such as dimensions and ionic selectivity. However, the efficiency of pore formation detection largely depends on the encounter probability of toxin to the membrane and the fragility of the membrane. This study presents a bilayer lipid membrane array that parallelizes 4 or 16 sets of sensing elements composed of pairs of a membrane and a series electrical resistor. The series resistor prevents current overflow attributed to membrane rupture, and enables current monitoring of the parallelized membranes with a single detector. The array system shortens detection time of a pore-forming protein and improves temporal stability. The current signature represents the states of pore formation and rupture at respective membranes. The developed system will help in understanding the toxic activity of pore-forming toxins.