High throughput screen for measuring membrane effects

1. An assay for measuring the effect of a test substance on a lipid bilayer, comprising:

providing vesicles composed of a lipid bilayer, a pair of an indicator and a monovalent cation, and gramicidin, wherein the vesicles encompass one member of the pair of the indicator and the monovalent cation, and comprise gramicidin in the lipid bilayer; wherein the lipid bilayer is formed using phospholipids selected from the group consisting of di-C 22:1 -, di-C 20:1 -, di-C 18:1 -, 1-C 16 -2-C 18:1 -acyl chains, and combinations thereof, in the absence or presence of cholesterol; and wherein molecules of gramicidin present in the lipid bilayer are in a monomer-dimer equilibrium in favor of monomer;

treating at least a portion of the vesicles with said test substance;

exposing the vesicles to a solution containing the other member of the pair of the indicator and the monovalent cation, wherein movement of said monovalent cation across the lipid bilayer through a conducting gramicidin channel causes the indicator to generate a detectable signal, wherein said detectable signal is indicative of the rate of monovalent cation movement across the lipid bilayer and is indicative of the density of conducting gramicidin channels in the lipid bilayer;

comparing the detectable signal generated from the vesicles treated with the test substance with the detectable signal generated from the vesicles not treated with the test substance, wherein a difference in the detectable signals correlates with the effect of said test substance on said lipid bilayer; and

determining the effect of said test substance on said lipid bilayer based on the comparison.

2. The assay of claim 1 , wherein the indicator is a fluorophore.

3. The assay of claim 1 , wherein said monovalent cation has a radius less than 2 Å.

4. The assay of claim 3 , wherein said monovalent cation is selected from the group consisting of Tl + , H + and combinations thereof.

5. The assay of claim 1 , wherein said pair of the indicator and the monovalent cation is selected from the group consisting of fluorescein-5-(and -6)-sulfonate and H + , benzothiazole coumarin acetate and Tl + ; and 8-aminonaphthalene-1,3,6-trisulfonic acid disodium salt (ANTS) and Tl + .

6. The assay of claim 1 , wherein the vesicles encompass an indicator.

7. The assay of claim 6 , wherein the indicator is a fluorophore that fluoresces in the absence of said monovalent cation, and said detectable signal is fluorescence quenching in the presence of said monovalent cation.

8. The assay of claim 7 , wherein said indicator is ANTS, and said monovalent cation is Tl + .

9. The assay of claim 8 , wherein fluorescence quenching is measured over time.

10. The assay of claim 9 , wherein the measurements at different time points are fitted to a stretched exponential equation.

11. The assay of claim 10 , wherein the rate of fluorescence quenching at the time point of 2 milliseconds (ms) is determined and used as the basis of said comparison.

12. The assay of claim 1 , wherein the vesicles initially encompass the indicator.

13. An assay for measuring the effect of a test substance on a lipid bilayer, comprising:

providing vesicles composed of a lipid bilayer, a pair of an indicator and a monovalent cation, and gramicidin, wherein the vesicles encompass the indicator or the indicator-monovalent cation pair, and the vesicles comprise gramicidin in the lipid bilayer; wherein the lipid bilayer is formed using phospholipids selected from the group consisting of di-C 22:1 -, di-C 20:1 -, di-C 18:1 -, 1-di-C 16 -2-C 18:1 -acyl chains, and combinations thereof, in the absence or presence of cholesterol; wherein molecules of gramicidin present in the lipid bilayer are in a monomer-dimer equilibrium in favor of monomer;

treating at least a portion of the vesicles with said test substance;

exposing the vesicles to a solution containing either the monovalent cation of the indicator-monovalent cation pair, wherein movement of said monovalent cation in the solution across the lipid bilayer through a conducting gramicidin channel into the vesicles causes the indicator to generate a detectable signal, or no monovalent cation in the solution, wherein movement of said monovalent cation in the vesicles across the lipid bilayer through a conducting gramicidin channel out of the vesicles causes the indicator to generate a detectable signal.

14. The assay of claim 1 , wherein the lipid bilayer is formed using phospholipids selected from the group consisting of di-C 18:1 PC, di-C 20:1 PC, di-C 22:1 PC, and combinations thereof.

15. The assay of claim 1 , wherein the lipid bilayer is formed using lipids selected from the group consisting of di-C 20:1 PC, di-C 22:1 PC, and combinations thereof.

16. The assay of claim 1 , wherein the thickness of the bilayer is about 1 nm thicker than the length of a conducting gA channel.