title: Interactions of membrane-active peptides with thick, neutral, nonzwitterionic bilayers.
abstract: Alamethicin is a well-studied channel-forming peptide that has a prototypical amphipathic helix structure. It permeabilizes both microbial and mammalian cell membranes, causing loss of membrane polarization and leakage of endogenous contents. Antimicrobial peptide-lipid systems have been studied quite extensively and have led to significant advancements in membrane biophysics. These studies have been performed on lipid bilayers that are generally charged or zwitterionic and restricted to a thickness range of 3-5 nm. Bilayers of amphiphilic diblock copolymers are a relatively new class of membranes that can have significantly different physicochemical properties compared with those of lipid membranes. In particular, they can be made uncharged, nonzwitterionic, and much thicker than their lipid counterparts. In an effort to extend studies of membrane-protein interactions to these synthetic membranes, we have characterized the interactions of alamethicin and several other membrane-active peptides with diblock copolymer bilayers. We find that although alamethicin is too small to span the bilayer, the peptide interacts with, and ruptures, thick polymer membranes.
authors.affiliation: Departments of Physics, of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, and of Physiology and Institute for Medicine and Engineering, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19104, USA.
authors.forename: Kandaswamy
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Vijayan
authors.forename: Dennis E
authors.initials: DE
authors.lastname: Discher
authors.forename: Jyotsana
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Lal
authors.forename: Paul
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Janmey
authors.forename: Mark
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Goulian
mesh_terms: D000408:Alamethicin / Q000737:chemistry*; D002942:Circular Dichroism; D005452:Fluoresceins / Q000737:chemistry; D057927:Hydrophobic and Hydrophilic Interactions; D013050:Spectrometry, Fluorescence; D014867:Water / Q000737:chemistry*
chemical_list: D005452:Fluoresceins; D014867:Water; D000408:Alamethicin; C007740:fluorexon