The Unusual Aggregation and Fusion Activity of the Antimicrobial Peptide W-BP100 in Anionic Vesicles

Autor: Ana Rita Ferreira, Mariana Ferreira, Cláudia Nunes, Salette Reis, Cátia Teixeira, Paula Gomes, Paula Gameiro
Jazyk: angličtina
Rok vydání: 2023
Předmět:
Zdroj: Membranes, Vol 13, Iss 2, p 138 (2023)
Druh dokumentu: article
ISSN: 2077-0375
DOI: 10.3390/membranes13020138
Popis: Cationic antimicrobial peptides (CAMPs) offer a promising strategy to counteract bacterial resistance, mostly due to their membrane-targeting activity. W-BP100 is a potent broad-spectrum cecropin-melittin CAMP bearing a single N-terminal Trp, which was previously found to improve its antibacterial activity. W-BP100 has high affinity toward anionic membranes, inducing membrane saturation at low peptide-to-lipid (P/L) ratios and membrane permeabilization, with the unique property of promoting the aggregation of anionic vesicles only at specific P/L ratios. Herein, we aimed to investigate this unusual behavior of W-BP100 by studying its aggregation and fusion properties with negatively-charged large (LUVs) or giant (GUVs) unilamellar vesicles using biophysical tools. Circular dichroism (CD) showed that W-BP100 adopted an α-helical conformation in anionic LUVs, neutralizing its surface charge at the aggregation P/L ratio. Its fusion activity, assessed by Förster resonance energy transfer (FRET) using steady-state fluorescence spectroscopy, occurred mainly at the membrane saturation/aggregation P/L ratio. Confocal microscopy studies confirmed that W-BP100 displays aggregation and detergent-like effects at a critical P/L ratio, above which it induces the formation of new lipid aggregates. Our data suggest that W-BP100 promotes the aggregation and fusion of anionic vesicles at specific P/L ratios, being able to reshape the morphology of GUVs into new lipid structures.
Databáze: Directory of Open Access Journals
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