title: Antibacterial activities of short designer peptides: a link between propensity for nanostructuring and capacity for membrane destabilization.
abstract: Amphiphilic peptides A(3)K, A(6)K, and A(9)K displayed an increasing propensity for nanoaggregation with increasing the size of hydrophobic alanine moiety, and the size and shape of the aggregates showed a steady transition from loose peptide stacks formed by A(3)K, long nanofibers by A(6)K, to short and narrow nanorods by A(9)K. This size and shape transition was broadly consistent with the trend predicted from interfacial packing and curvature change if these peptide surfactants were treated as conventional surfactants. The antibacterial capacity, defined by the killing of percentage of bacteria in a given time and peptide concentration, showed a strong correlation to peptide hydrophobicity, evident from both microscopic and fluorescence imaging studies. For A(9)K, the power for membrane permeation and bacterial clustering intensified with peptide concentration and incubation time. These results thus depict a positive correlation between the propensity for self-assembly of the peptides, their membrane penetration power, and bactericidal capacity. Although the exposure of A(9)K to a preformed DPPC membrane bilayer showed little structural disturbance, the same treatment to the preformed DPPG membrane bilayer led to substantial disruption of model membrane structure, a trend entirely consistent with the high selectivity observed from membrane hemolytic studies.
authors.affiliation: China University of Petroleum, Qingdao, China.
authors.forename: Cuixia
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: Fang
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Pan
authors.forename: Shengzhong
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Jing
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Hu
authors.forename: Meiwen
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Cao
authors.forename: Jing
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Hai
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Xu
authors.forename: Xiubo
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Zhao
authors.forename: Jian R
authors.initials: JR
authors.lastname: Lu
mesh_terms: D000900:Anti-Bacterial Agents / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000493:pharmacokinetics; D002462:Cell Membrane / Q000187:drug effects / Q000378:metabolism*; D004305:Dose-Response Relationship, Drug; D004926:Escherichia coli / Q000187:drug effects / Q000378:metabolism; D006801:Humans; D049329:Nanostructures / Q000737:chemistry*; D010455:Peptides / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000493:pharmacokinetics; D013211:Staphylococcus aureus / Q000187:drug effects / Q000378:metabolism
chemical_list: D000900:Anti-Bacterial Agents; D010455:Peptides