Molecular dynamics simulations of the effects of lipid oxidation on the permeability of cell membranes

The formation of transient pores in their membranes is a well-known mechanism of permeabilization of cells exposed to high-intensity electric pulses. However, the formation of such pores is not able to explain all aspects of the so-called electroporation phenomenon. In particular, the reasons for sustained permeability of cell membranes, persisting long after the pulses' application, remain elusive. The complete resealing of cell membranes takes indeed orders of magnitude longer than the time for electropore closure as reported from molecular dynamics (MD) investigations. Lipid peroxidation has been suggested as a possible mechanism to explain the sustainable permeability of cell membranes. However, theoretical investigations of membrane lesions containing excess amounts of hydroperoxides have shown that the conductivities of such lesions were not high enough to account for the experimental measurements. Here, expanding on these studies, we investigate quantitatively the permeability of cell membrane lesions that underwent secondary oxidation. MD simulations and free energy calculations of lipid bilayers show that such lesions provide a better model of post-pulse permeable and conductive electropermeabilized cells. These results are further discussed in the context of sonoporation and ferroptosis, respectively a procedure and a phenomenon, among others, in which, alike electroporation, substantial lipid oxidation might be triggered.