Antimicrobial peptides at work: interaction of myxinidin and its mutant WMR with lipid bilayers mimicking the P. aeruginosa and E. coli membranes

Sci Rep. 2017 Mar 15:7:44425. doi: 10.1038/srep44425.

Abstract

Antimicrobial peptides are promising candidates as future therapeutics in order to face the problem of antibiotic resistance caused by pathogenic bacteria. Myxinidin is a peptide derived from the hagfish mucus displaying activity against a broad range of bacteria. We have focused our studies on the physico-chemical characterization of the interaction of myxinidin and its mutant WMR, which contains a tryptophan residue at the N-terminus and four additional positive charges, with two model biological membranes (DOPE/DOPG 80/20 and DOPE/DOPG/CL 65/23/12), mimicking respectively Escherichia coli and Pseudomonas aeruginosa membrane bilayers. All our results have coherently shown that, although both myxinidin and WMR interact with the two membranes, their effect on membrane microstructure and stability are different. We further have shown that the presence of cardiolipin plays a key role in the WMR-membrane interaction. Particularly, WMR drastically perturbs the DOPE/DOPG/CL membrane stability inducing a segregation of anionic lipids. On the contrary, myxinidin is not able to significantly perturb the DOPE/DOPG/CL bilayer whereas interacts better with the DOPE/DOPG bilayer causing a significant perturbing effect of the lipid acyl chains. These findings are fully consistent with the reported greater antimicrobial activity of WMR against P. aeruginosa compared with myxinidin.

MeSH terms

  • Antimicrobial Cationic Peptides / chemistry*
  • Antimicrobial Cationic Peptides / pharmacology
  • Cell Membrane / chemistry
  • Cell Membrane / drug effects*
  • Drug Resistance, Bacterial / drug effects
  • Escherichia coli / chemistry
  • Escherichia coli / drug effects
  • Escherichia coli / pathogenicity
  • Fish Proteins / chemistry*
  • Fish Proteins / pharmacology
  • Humans
  • Lipid Bilayers / antagonists & inhibitors
  • Lipid Bilayers / chemistry
  • Mutant Proteins / chemistry
  • Mutant Proteins / genetics
  • Oligopeptides / chemistry*
  • Oligopeptides / pharmacology
  • Pseudomonas aeruginosa / chemistry
  • Pseudomonas aeruginosa / drug effects
  • Pseudomonas aeruginosa / pathogenicity

Substances

  • Antimicrobial Cationic Peptides
  • Fish Proteins
  • Lipid Bilayers
  • Mutant Proteins
  • Oligopeptides
  • myxinidin peptide, Myxine glutinosa