Synergism of Antimicrobial Frog Peptides Couples to Membrane Intrinsic Curvature Strain.

ABSTRACT: Mixtures of the frog peptides magainin 2 and PGLa are well-known for their pronounced synergistic killing of Gram-negative bacteria. We aimed to gain insight into the underlying biophysical mechanism by interrogating the permeabilizing efficacies of the peptides as a function of stored membrane curvature strain. For Gram-negative bacterial-inner-membrane mimics, synergism was only observed when the anionic bilayers exhibited significant negative intrinsic curvatures imposed by monounsaturated phosphatidylethanolamine. In contrast, the peptides and their mixtures did not exhibit significant activities in charge-neutral mammalian mimics, including those with negative curvature, which is consistent with the requirement of charge-mediated peptide binding to the membrane. Our experimental findi

SUBMITTER: Leber R 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5937145 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature