title: Structural polymorphism of two CPP: an important parameter of activity.
abstract: Despite numerous investigations, the important structural features of Cell Penetrating Peptides (CPPs) remain unclear as demonstrated by the difficulties encountered in designing new molecules. In this study, we focused our interest on Penetratin and Transportan and several of their variants. Penetratin W48F and Penetratin W48F/W56F exhibit a reduced and a complete lack of cellular uptake, respectively; TP07 and TP10 present a similar cellular uptake as Transportan and TP08, TP13 and TP15 display no or weak internalization capacity. We applied the algorithmic method named PepLook to analyze the peptide polymorphism. The study reveals common conformational characteristics for the CPPs and their permeable variants: they all are polymorphic. Negative, non permeable, mutants share the opposite feature since they are monomorphic. Finally, we support the hypothesis that structural polymorphism may be crucial since it provides peptides with the possibility of adapting their conformation to medium hydrophobicity and or to partner diversity.
authors.affiliation: Centre de Biophysique Moléculaire Numérique (CBMN), Faculté Universitaire des Sciences Agronomiques de Gembloux, 2, Passage des Déportés, 5030 Gembloux, Belgium.
authors.forename: Sébastien
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Deshayes
authors.forename: Marc
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Decaffmeyer
authors.forename: Robert
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Brasseur
authors.forename: Annick
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Thomas
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D002352:Carrier Proteins / Q000737:chemistry*; D057846:Cell-Penetrating Peptides; D019004:Galanin / Q000737:chemistry*; D008958:Models, Molecular; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D011110:Polymorphism, Genetic; D011487:Protein Conformation; D011993:Recombinant Fusion Proteins / Q000737:chemistry*; D014862:Wasp Venoms / Q000737:chemistry*
chemical_list: D002352:Carrier Proteins; D057846:Cell-Penetrating Peptides; D011993:Recombinant Fusion Proteins; D014862:Wasp Venoms; C110068:transportan; D019004:Galanin; C414409:penetratin