Issue 11, 2014

Nanomechanical response of bacterial cells to cationic antimicrobial peptides

Abstract

The effectiveness of antimicrobial compounds can be easily screened, however their mechanism of action is much more difficult to determine. Many compounds act by compromising the mechanical integrity of the bacterial cell envelope, and our study introduces an AFM-based creep deformation technique to evaluate changes in the time-dependent mechanical properties of Pseudomonas aeruginosa PAO1 bacterial cells upon exposure to two different but structurally related antimicrobial peptides. We observed a distinctive signature for the loss of integrity of the bacterial cell envelope following exposure to the peptides. Measurements performed before and after exposure, as well as time-resolved measurements and those performed at different concentrations, revealed large changes to the viscoelastic parameters that are consistent with differences in the membrane permeabilizing effects of the peptides. The AFM creep deformation measurement provides new, unique insight into the kinetics and mechanism of action of antimicrobial peptides on bacteria.

Graphical abstract: Nanomechanical response of bacterial cells to cationic antimicrobial peptides

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
06 Nov 2013
Accepted
15 Jan 2014
First published
15 Jan 2014

Soft Matter, 2014,10, 1806-1815

Nanomechanical response of bacterial cells to cationic antimicrobial peptides

S. Lu, G. Walters, R. Parg and J. R. Dutcher, Soft Matter, 2014, 10, 1806 DOI: 10.1039/C3SM52801D

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