Models of toxic beta-sheet channels of protegrin-1 suggest a common subunit organization motif shared with toxic alzheimer beta-amyloid ion channels.
Antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) induce cytotoxicity by altering membrane permeability. The electrical properties of membrane-associated AMPs as well as their cellular effects have been extensively documented; however their three-dimensional structure is poorly understood. Gaining insight into channel structures is important to the understanding of the protegrin-1 (PG-1) and other AMP cytolytic mechanisms, and to antibiotics design. We studied the beta-sheet channels morphology using molecular dynamics simulations. We modeled PG-1 channels as intrinsic barrel-stave and toroidal membrane pores, and simulated them in zwitterionic and anionic lipid bilayers. PG-1 channels consist of eight beta-hairpins in a consecutive NCCN (N and C represent the beta-hairpin's N- and C-termini) packing organization yielding antiparallel and parallel beta-sheet channels. Both channels preserve the toroidal, but not the barrel-stave pores. The two lipid leaflets of the bilayer bend toward each other at the channels' edges, producing a semitoroidal pore with the outward-pointing hydrophobic residues preventing the polar lipid headgroups from moving to the bilayer center. In all simulated lipid environments, PG-1 channels divide into four or five beta-sheet subunits consisting of single or dimeric beta-hairpins. The channel morphology with subunit organization is consistent with the four to five subunits observed by NMR in the POPE/POPG bilayer. Remarkably, a beta-sheet subunit channel motif is in agreement with Alzheimer ion channels modeled using the universal U-shape beta-strand-turn-beta-strand structure, as well as with high resolution atomic force microscopy images of beta-amyloid channels with four to six subunits. Consistent with the toxic beta-amyloid channels that are ion-conducting, the PG-1 channels permeate anions.
Jang
Hyunbum
H
Center for Cancer Research Nanobiology Program, NCI-Frederick, SAIC-Frederick, Frederick, Maryland, USA. jangh@ncifcrf.gov
Ma
Buyong
B
Lal
Ratnesh
R
Nussinov
Ruth
R
D020816:Amino Acid Motifs; D016229:Amyloid beta-Peptides / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000648:ultrastructure*; D023181:Antimicrobial Cationic Peptides / Q000737:chemistry*; D003198:Computer Simulation; D007473:Ion Channels / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000648:ultrastructure*; D008956:Models, Chemical; D008958:Models, Molecular; D011487:Protein Conformation; D021122:Protein Subunits
D016229:Amyloid beta-Peptides; D023181:Antimicrobial Cationic Peptides; D007473:Ion Channels; D021122:Protein Subunits; C094880:protegrin-1