Spectral and biological evaluation of a synthetic antimicrobial peptide derived from 1-aminocyclohexane carboxylic acid.

Ac-GF(A6c)G(A6c)K(A6c)G(A6c)F(A6c)G(A6c)GK(A6c)KKKK-amide (A6c=1-aminocyclohexane carboxylic acid) is a synthetic antimicrobial peptide (AMP) that exhibits in vitro inhibitory activity against drug resistant strains of Staphylococcus aureus, Acinetobacter baumannii, Klebsiella pneumoniae, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Enterobacter aerogenes, and Enterococcus faecium at concentrations ranging from 10.9 to 43µM. Spectroscopic investigations were conducted to determine how this AMP interacts with simple membrane model systems in order to provide insight into possible mechanisms of action. CD and 2D-(1)H NMR experiments indicated this AMP on binding to SDS and DPC micelles adopts conformations with varying percentages of helical and random coil conformers. CD investigations in the presence of three phospholipid SUVs consisting of POPC, 4:1 POPC/POPG, and 60% POPE/21%POPG/19%POPC revealed: (1) The interactions occurring with POPC SUVs have minimal effect on the conformational diversity of the AMP yielding conformations similar to those observed in buffer. (2) The interactions with 4:1 POPC/POPG, and 60% POPE/21%POPG/19%POPC SUVs exhibited a greater influence on the percentage of different conformers contributing to the CD spectra. (3) The presence of a high of percentage of helical conformers was not observed in the presence of SUVs as was the case with micelles. This data indicates that the diversity of surface bound conformations adopted by this AMP are very different from the diversity of conformations adopted by this AMP on insertion into the lipid bilayer. CD spectra of this AMP in the presence of SUVs consisting of LPS isolated from P. aeruginosa, K. pneumoniae and Escherichia coli exhibited characteristics associated with various helical conformations.

Spectroscopic investigations of the binding mechanisms between antimicrobial peptides and membrane models of Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Klebsiella pneumoniae.

CD spectroscopy was used to investigate the interactions of a series of synthetic AMPs with LPS isolated from Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Klebsiella pneumoniae, as well as with various phospholipids to better approximate the chemical composition of the membranes of these two strains of Gram-negative bacteria. This investigation was conducted in order to probe how the contributions of key physicochemical properties of an AMP vary in different regions of the membranes of these two bacteria. The conclusions from this study are as follows. (1) The binding interactions between the AMP and the membranes are defined by the complementarity of delocalization of positive charge density of the basic amino side chains (i.e., electrostatics), molecular flexibility of the peptide backbone, and overall hydrophobicity. (2) The binding interactions of these AMPs to LPS seem to be predominantly with the lipid A region of the LPS. (3) Incorporation of phospholipids into the LPS containing SUVs resulted in dramatic changes in the conformational equilibrium of the bound AMPs. (4) For the LPS-phospholipid models of Pseudomonas aeruginosa, delocalization of the side chain positive charge plays a major role in determining the number of conformers that contribute to the binding conformational equilibrium. This relationship was not observed for the models of the outer and inner membranes of Klebsiella pneumoniae.

Synthetic Antimicrobial Peptides Exhibit Two Different Binding Mechanisms to the Lipopolysaccharides Isolated from Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Klebsiella pneumoniae.

Circular dichroism and (1)H NMR were used to investigate the interactions of a series of synthetic antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) with lipopolysaccharides (LPS) isolated from Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Klebsiella pneumoniae. Previous CD studies with AMPs containing only three Tic-Oic dipeptide units do not exhibit helical characteristics upon interacting with small unilamellar vesicles (SUVs) consisting of LPS. Increasing the number of Tic-Oic dipeptide units to six resulted in five analogues with CD spectra that exhibited helical characteristics on binding to LPS SUVs. Spectroscopic and in vitro inhibitory data suggest that there are two possible helical conformations resulting from two different AMP-LPS binding mechanisms. Mechanism one involves a helical binding conformation where the AMP binds LPS very strongly and is not efficiently transported across the LPS bilayer resulting in the loss of inhibitory activity. Mechanism two involves a helical binding conformation where the AMP binds LPS very loosely and is efficiently transported across the LPS bilayer resulting in an increase in inhibitory activity. Mechanism three involves a nonhelical binding conformation where the AMP binds LPS very loosely and is efficiently transported across the LPS bilayer resulting in an increase in inhibitory activity.

Quartromicin biosynthesis: two alternative polyketide chains produced by one polyketide synthase assembly line.

The antiviral compounds quartromicins represent unique members of a family of spirotetronate natural products. In this study, a biosynthetic gene cluster of quartromicins was identified by degenerate primer PCR amplification of specific genes involved in the biosynthesis of the tetronate moiety. The biochemical results confirmed that 1,3-bisphosphoglycerate was incorporated into the tetronate ring, and the intermediates of this ring were also reconstructed in vitro. The data also suggested a module skipping strategy for the production of two alternative polyketide chains by the same polyketide synthase assembly line. These findings set the stage for further investigations of the stereodivergent intermolecular cyclization mechanism, and highlight how nature has constructed this type of C2 symmetric molecule through intermolecular dimerization.