Bulletin of the American Physical Society
APS March Meeting 2011
Volume 56, Number 1
Monday–Friday, March 21–25, 2011; Dallas, Texas
Session J4: Interactions Between Pore Forming Peptides and Membranes |
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Sponsoring Units: DPOLY DBP Chair: Gerard Wong, University of California, Los Angeles Room: Ballroom A4 |
Tuesday, March 22, 2011 11:15AM - 11:51AM |
J4.00001: Membrane Disruption Mechanism by Antimicrobial Peptides Invited Speaker: Antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) are a class of small (less than100 residues) host defense peptides that induce selective membrane lytic activity against microbes. To understand the mechanism of membrane disruption by AMPs, we investigated, via atomic force microscopy, topological changes in supported phospholipid bilayers induced by protegrin-1 (PG-1). We have observed that PG-1 induces structural transformations, progressing from fingerlike instabilities at bilayer edges, to the formation of sievelike nanoporous structures and finally to a network of stripelike structures in a zwitterionic dimyristoylphosphatidylcholine (DMPC) model membrane in buffer, with increasing PG-1 concentration. Our results suggest that AMPs act to lower the interfacial energy of the bilayer in a way similar to detergents. By varying the lipid composition, temperature and using AMPs with different secondary structures, we are able to identify factors other than electrostatics that are important for the efficacy of AMPs. [Preview Abstract] |
Tuesday, March 22, 2011 11:51AM - 12:27PM |
J4.00002: Deconstruction of biophysical function in the HIV fusion peptide Invited Speaker: We have synthesized a library of variants of the 23-residue fusion peptide domain found at the $N$-terminus of gp-41 glycoprotein of HIV. This sequence is critical for viral infectivity and is thought to be central in the membrane fusion of viral envelope with the host endosomal membrane. There has been extensive discussion in the literature regarding the mechanism by which this viral fusion sequence initiates membrane fusion, with importance placed on glycine-content, particular oligomeric states and secondary structure; both helical and sheet structures have been proposed to be the active fusogenic structure. Our library was designed to address the biophysical importance of secondary structure, peptide flexibility, glycine content and location as well as the nature of the membrane anchor. Each member of this library also bears a positively charged hexapeptide at the $C$-terminus for solubility and to facilitate binding to negatively charged membranes. We assayed each peptide for its ability to induce lipid-mixing and lysis in both large and giant unilamellar vesicles, and searched for correlations between aggregated peptides and heightened activity. We find that the information encoded in the viral fusion peptide required for may be greatly simplified: glycine is not required for fusion, aggregation is not correlated with activity, and any peptide within a window of hydrophobicity can be an effective fusion catalyst. Given the wide range of sequences which may be effective in catalyzing vesicle membrane fusion, it appears highly unlikely that a particular stably folded secondary structure is important for fusion. Rather, our data show that many flexible, linear, minimally hydrophobic peptides may achieve the biophysical function of fusion. [Preview Abstract] |
Tuesday, March 22, 2011 12:27PM - 1:03PM |
J4.00003: Relation between amino acid sequence and peptide-induced membrane curvature Invited Speaker: This abstract not available. [Preview Abstract] |
Tuesday, March 22, 2011 1:03PM - 1:39PM |
J4.00004: Structural Studies of Biological Solids Using NMR Invited Speaker: High-resolution structure and dynamics of biological molecules are important in understanding their function. While studies have been successful in solving the structures of water-soluble biomolecules, it has been proven difficult to determine the structures of membrane proteins and fibril systems. Recent studies have shown that solid-state NMR is a promising technique and could be highly valuable in studying such non-crystalline and non-soluble biosystems. I will present strategies to study the structures of such challenging systems and also about the applications of solid-state NMR to study the modes of membrane-peptide interactions for a better assessment of the prospects of antimicrobial peptides as substitutes to antibiotics in the control of human disease. Our studies on the mechanism of membrane disruption by LL-37 (a human antimicrobial peptide), analogs of the naturally occurring antimicrobial peptide magainin2 extracted from the skin of the African frog Xenopus Laevis, and pardaxin will be presented. Solid-state NMR experiments were used to determine the secondary structure, dynamics and topology of these peptides in lipid bilayers. Similarities and difference in the cell-lysing mechanism, and their dependence on the membrane composition, of these peptides will be discussed. Atomic-level resolution NMR structures of amyloidogenic proteins revealing the misfolding pathway and early intermediates that play key roles in amyloid toxicity will also be presented. [Preview Abstract] |
Tuesday, March 22, 2011 1:39PM - 2:15PM |
J4.00005: How antimicrobial peptides disrupt lipid bilayers? Invited Speaker: The molecular basis for the activity of cyclic and linear antimicrobial peptides is analysed. We performed multi-scale molecular dynamics simulations and biophysical measurements to probe the interaction of antimicrobial peptides with model membranes. Two linear antimicrobial peptides, magainin and melittin and a cyclic one, BPC194 have been studied. We test different models to determine the generic and specific forces that lead to bilayer disruption. We probe whether interfacial stress or local membrane perturbation is more likely to lead to the porated state. We further analyse the reasons that determine specificity and increase of activity in antimicrobial peptides. The results provide detailed insight in the mode of action of antimicrobial peptides. [Preview Abstract] |
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