title: Antimicrobial Peptide-Driven Colloidal Transformations in Liquid-Crystalline Nanocarriers.
abstract: Designing efficient colloidal systems for the delivery of membrane active antimicrobial peptides requires in-depth understanding of their structural and morphological characteristics. Using dispersions of inverted type bicontinuous cubic phase (cubosomes), we examine the effect of integrating the amphiphilic peptide LL-37 at different concentrations on the self-assembled structure and evaluate its bactericidal ability against Escherichia coli. Small-angle X-ray scattering, dynamic light scattering, and cryogenic transmission electron microscopy show that LL-37 integrates into the bicontinuous cubic structure, inducing colloidal transformations to sponge and lamellar phases and micelles in a concentration-dependent manner. These investigations, together with in vitro evaluation studies using a clinically relevant bacterial strain, established the composition-nanostructure-activity relationship that can guide the design of new nanocarriers for antimicrobial peptides and may provide essential knowledge on the mechanisms underlying the bacterial membrane disruption with peptide-loaded nanostructures.
authors.affiliation: Laboratory for Biointerfaces, Department Materials meet Life, Empa, Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology , Lerchenfeldstrasse 5, 9014 St. Gallen, Switzerland.|Department of Pharmacy, Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences, University of Copenhagen , Universitetsparken 2, DK-2100 Copenhagen Ø, Denmark.
authors.forename: Mark
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Gontsarik
authors.affiliation: Laboratory for Biointerfaces, Department Materials meet Life, Empa, Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology , Lerchenfeldstrasse 5, 9014 St. Gallen, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Matthias T
authors.initials: MT
authors.lastname: Buhmann
authors.affiliation: Department of Pharmacy, Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences, University of Copenhagen , Universitetsparken 2, DK-2100 Copenhagen Ø, Denmark.
authors.forename: Anan
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Yaghmur
authors.affiliation: Laboratory for Biointerfaces, Department Materials meet Life, Empa, Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology , Lerchenfeldstrasse 5, 9014 St. Gallen, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Qun
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Ren
authors.affiliation: Laboratory for Biointerfaces, Department Materials meet Life, Empa, Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology , Lerchenfeldstrasse 5, 9014 St. Gallen, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Katharina
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Maniura-Weber
authors.affiliation: Laboratory for Biointerfaces, Department Materials meet Life, Empa, Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology , Lerchenfeldstrasse 5, 9014 St. Gallen, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Stefan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Salentinig
mesh_terms: D000890:Anti-Infective Agents / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D050866:Liquid Crystals / Q000737:chemistry*; D049329:Nanostructures / Q000737:chemistry*; D010455:Peptides / Q000737:chemistry*
chemical_list: D000890:Anti-Infective Agents; D010455:Peptides