Antimicrobial peptide protegrin-3 adopt an antiparallel dimer in the presence of DPC micelles: a high-resolution NMR study

J Biomol NMR. 2015 May;62(1):71-9. doi: 10.1007/s10858-015-9920-0. Epub 2015 Mar 19.

Abstract

A tendency to dimerize in the presence of lipids was found for the protegrin. The dimer formation by the protegrin-1 (PG-1) is the first step for further oligomeric membrane pore formation. Generally there are two distinct model of PG-1 dimerization in either a parallel or antiparallel β-sheet. But despite the wealth of data available today, protegrin dimer structure and pore formation is still not completely understood. In order to investigate a more detailed dimerization process of PG-1 and if it will be the same for another type of protegrins, in this work we used a high-resolution NMR spectroscopy for structure determination of protegrin-3 (RGGGL-CYCRR-RFCVC-VGR) in the presence of perdeuterated DPC micelles and demonstrate that PG-3 forms an antiparallel NCCN dimer with a possible association of these dimers. This structural study complements previously published solution, solid state and computational studies of PG-1 in various environments and validate the potential of mean force simulations of PG-1 dimers and association of dimers to form octameric or decameric β-barrels.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Anti-Infective Agents / chemistry*
  • Antimicrobial Cationic Peptides / chemistry*
  • Computer Simulation
  • Dimerization
  • Micelles
  • Nuclear Magnetic Resonance, Biomolecular / methods*
  • Protein Conformation

Substances

  • Anti-Infective Agents
  • Antimicrobial Cationic Peptides
  • Micelles
  • protegrin-1
  • protegrin-3