Guanidino Groups Greatly Enhance the Action of Antimicrobial Peptidomimetics Against Bacterial Cytoplasmic Membranes

Abstract

Antimicrobial peptides or their synthetic mimics are a promising class of potential new antibiotics. Herein we assess the effect of the type of cationic side chain (i.e., guanidino vs. amino groups) on the membrane perturbing mechanism of antimicrobial alpha-peptide Beta-peptoid chimeras. Langmuir monolayers composed of 1,2-dipalmitoyl-sn glycero- 3-phosphatidylglycerol (DPPG) were used to model cytoplasmic membranes of both Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria, while lipopolysaccharide Kdo2-lipid A monolayers were mimicking the outer membrane of Gram-negative species. We report the results of the measurements using an array of techniques, including high-resolution synchrotron surface X-ray scattering, epifluorescence microscopy, and in vitro antimicrobial activity to study the molecular mechanisms of peptidomimetic interaction with bacterial membranes. We found guanidino group-containing chimeras to exhibit greater disruptive activity on DPPG monolayers than the amino group-containing analogues. However, this effect was not observed for lipopolysaccharide monolayers where the difference was negligible. Furthermore, the addition of the nitrobenzoxadiazole fluorophore did not reduce the insertion activity of these antimicrobials into both model membrane systems examined, which may be useful for future cellular localization studies.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
May 28, 2014
Accession Number
ADA617344

Entities

People

  • Christian A. Olsen
  • Christopher Bianchi
  • David Gidalevitz
  • Ivan Kuzmenko
  • Jonas S. Laursen
  • Konstantin Andreev
  • Linda Citterio
  • Line Hein-kristensen
  • Lone Gram

Organizations

  • Illinois Institute of Technology

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Biomedical

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Anti-Bacterial Agents
  • Anti-Infective Agents
  • Bacteria
  • Blood
  • Cell Membrane
  • Cells
  • Cellular Structures
  • Chemical Synthesis
  • Chemistry
  • Crystal Lattices
  • Diffraction
  • Gram-Negative Bacteria
  • Organic Chemistry
  • Peptides
  • Scattering
  • Two Dimensional
  • X-Ray Diffraction

Fields of Study

  • Biology

Readers

  • Immunology
  • Molecular and Cellular Biochemistry