title: Describing the mechanism of antimicrobial peptide action with the interfacial activity model.
abstract: Antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) have been studied for three decades, and yet a molecular understanding of their mechanism of action is still lacking. Here we summarize current knowledge for both synthetic vesicle experiments and microbe experiments, with a focus on comparisons between the two. Microbial experiments are done at peptide to lipid ratios that are at least 4 orders of magnitude higher than vesicle-based experiments. To close the gap between the two concentration regimes, we propose an "interfacial activity model", which is based on an experimentally testable molecular image of AMP-membrane interactions. The interfacial activity model may be useful in driving engineering and design of novel AMPs.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biochemistry SL43, Tulane University Health Sciences Center, New Orleans, Louisiana 70112-2699, USA. wwimley@tulane.edu
authors.forename: William C
authors.initials: WC
authors.lastname: Wimley
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D000890:Anti-Infective Agents / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000494:pharmacology*; D023181:Antimicrobial Cationic Peptides / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000494:pharmacology*; D001419:Bacteria / Q000187:drug effects*; D001424:Bacterial Infections / Q000188:drug therapy; D002462:Cell Membrane / Q000187:drug effects*; D006801:Humans; D008567:Membranes, Artificial; D008954:Models, Biological; D008958:Models, Molecular; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data
chemical_list: D000890:Anti-Infective Agents; D023181:Antimicrobial Cationic Peptides; D008567:Membranes, Artificial