Issue 36, 2020

Photo-initiated rupture of azobenzene micelles to enable the spectroscopic analysis of antimicrobial peptide dynamics

Abstract

Antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) show promise for the treatment of bacterial infections, but many have undesired hemolytic activities. The AMP MP1 not only has broad spectrum bactericidal activity, but has been shown to have antitumor activity. The interaction between AMPs and cellular membranes gives rise to a peptide's cell-specificity and activity. However, direct analysis of the biophysical interactions between peptides and membrane is complex, in part due to the nature of membrane environments as well as structural changes in the peptide that occurs upon binding to the membrane. In order to investigate the interplay between cell selectivity, activity, and secondary structural changes involved in antimicrobial peptide activity, we sought to implement photolizable membrane mimics to assess the types of information available from infrared spectroscopic measurements that follow from photoinitiated peptide dynamics. Azo-surfactants (APEG) form micelles containing a photolizable azobenzene core, which upon irradiation can induce membrane deformation resulting in breakdown of micelles. Spectroscopic analysis of membrane deformation may provide insights into the physical behavior associated with unfolding and dissociation of antimicrobial peptides within a membrane environment. Herein, we synthesized and characterized two new azo-surfactants, APEGTMG and APEGNEt2MeI. Furthermore, we demonstrate the viability of azosurfactants as membrane mimics by examining both the membrane binding and dissociation induced secondary structural changes of the antimicrobial peptide, MP1.

Graphical abstract: Photo-initiated rupture of azobenzene micelles to enable the spectroscopic analysis of antimicrobial peptide dynamics

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
28 Feb 2020
Accepted
27 May 2020
First published
04 Jun 2020
This article is Open Access
Creative Commons BY-NC license

RSC Adv., 2020,10, 21464-21472

Photo-initiated rupture of azobenzene micelles to enable the spectroscopic analysis of antimicrobial peptide dynamics

M. G. Roberson, J. M. Duncan, K. J. Flieth, L. M. Geary and M. J. Tucker, RSC Adv., 2020, 10, 21464 DOI: 10.1039/D0RA01920H

This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported Licence. You can use material from this article in other publications, without requesting further permission from the RSC, provided that the correct acknowledgement is given and it is not used for commercial purposes.

To request permission to reproduce material from this article in a commercial publication, please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

If you are an author contributing to an RSC publication, you do not need to request permission provided correct acknowledgement is given.

If you are the author of this article, you do not need to request permission to reproduce figures and diagrams provided correct acknowledgement is given. If you want to reproduce the whole article in a third-party commercial publication (excluding your thesis/dissertation for which permission is not required) please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

Read more about how to correctly acknowledge RSC content.

Social activity

Spotlight

Advertisements