• Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.35 no.3
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• pp.783-792
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• 2014

The binding interaction between a hemolytic peptide ${\delta}$-lysin and a zwitterionic lipid bilayer POPC was investigated through a series of molecular dynamics (MD) simulations. ${\delta}$-Lysin is a 26-residue, amphipathic, ${\alpha}$-helical peptide toxin secreted by Staphylococcus aureus. Unlike typical antimicrobial peptides, ${\delta}$-lysin has no net charge and it is often found in aggregated forms in solution even at low concentration. Our study showed that only the monomer, not dimer, inserts into the bilayer interior. The monomer is preferentially attracted toward the membrane with its hydrophilic side facing the bilayer surface. However, peptide insertion requires the opposite orientation where the hydrophobic side of peptide points toward the membrane interior. Such orientation allows the charged residues, Lys and Asp, to have stable salt bridges with the lipid head-group while the hydrophobic residues are buried deeper in the hydrophobic lipid interior. Our simulations suggest that breaking these salt bridges is the key step for the monomer to be fully inserted into the center of lipid bilayer and, possibly, to translocate across the membrane.

• Journal of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.64 no.3
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• pp.145-152
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• 2020

Flip-flop rate constants were measured by dithionite assay of NBD-PE fluorescence in DMPC/POPC vesicles made of various DMPC/POPC ratios. The activation energy, enthalpy, entropy, and free energy were determined based on the transition state theory. We found that the activation energy, enthalpy, and entropy increased as the amount of POPC increased, but the activation free energy was almost constant. These experimental results and other similar studies allow us to propose that the POPC molecules included in DMPC vesicles affect the flip-flop motion of NBD-PE in DMPC/POPC vesicles via increasing the packing order of the ground state of the bilayer of the vesicles. The increase in the packing order in the ground state seems to be a result of the effect of the overall molecular shape of POPC with a monounsaturated tail group, rather than the effect of the longer tail group.

• Analytical Science and Technology
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• v.26 no.6
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• pp.395-400
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• 2013

The hydration and antimicrobial peptide effects on the lipid alignment on the surface of a thin glass plate were investigated by using the solid-state nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy. Pure 1-palmitoyl-2-oleoyl-sn-glycero-3-phosphotidylcholine (POPC) lipid molecules were well aligned on the surface of a thin glass plate without direct hydration by placing the sample for a few days in the desiccator containing a saturated sodium phosphate dibasic solution, which provided 95% relative humidity. But there was a big difference between two lipid phases, the one of which was hydrated by placing the sample for a few days in the desiccator with 95% relative humidity without direct hydration and the other was directly hydrated by dropping water and then placed for a few days in the same desiccator. The surface mobility of POPC molecules in a lipid bilayer phase was much activated by water. While the time for the POPC to align on the glass plate surface was short, the time for the PG-1/POPC mixture to reach the its equilibrium state was long.

• Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.31 no.2
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• pp.372-378
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• 2010

Membrane disruption by an antimicrobial peptide, protegrin-1 (PG-1), was investigated by measuring the $^2H$ solid-state nuclear magnetic resonance (SSNMR) spectra of 1-palmitoyl-$d_{31}$-2-oleoyl-sn-glycero-3-phosphatidylcholine (POPC_$d_{31}$) in the mixture of PG-1 and POPC_$d_{31}$ lipids deposited on thin cover-glass plates. The experimental line shapes of anisotropic $^2H$ SSNMR spectra measured at various peptide-to-lipid (P/L) ratios were simulated reasonably by assuming the mosaic spread of bilayers containing pore structures or the coexistence of the mosaic spread of bilayers and a fast-tumbling isotropic phase. Within a few days of incubation in the hydration chamber, the pores were formed by the peptide in the POPC_$d_{31}$ and POPC_$d_{31}$/cholesterol membranes. However, the formation of the pores was not clear in the POPC_$d_{31}$/1-palmitoyl-2-oleoyl-sn-glycero-3-phosphatidylglycerol (POPG) membrane. Over a hundred days after hydration, a rapidly rotating isotropic phase increased in the POPC_$d_{31}$ and the POPC_$d_{31}$/cholesterol membranes with the higher P/L ratios, but no isotropic phase appeared in the POPC_$d_{31}$/POPG membrane. Cholesterol added in the POPC bilayer acted as a stabilizer of the pore structure and suppressed the formation of a fast-tumbling isotropic phase.

• Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.33 no.2
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• pp.426-432
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• 2012

The activity of an antimicrobial peptide, protegrin-1 (PG-1), on lipid membranes was investigated using solidstate NMR and a new sampling method that employed mechanically aligned bilayers between thin glass plates. At 95% hydration and full hydration, the peptide respectively disrupted 25% and 86% of the aligned 1-palmitoyl-2-oleoyl-sn-glycero-3-phosphotidylcholine (POPC) bilayers at a P/L (peptide-to-lipid) ratio of 1/20 under the new experimental conditions. The kinetics of the POPC bilayers disruption appeared to be diffusioncontrolled. The presence of cholesterol at 95% hydration and full hydration reduced the peptide disruption of the aligned POPC bilayers to less than 10% and 35%, respectively. A comparison of the equilibrium states of heterogeneously and homogeneously mixed peptides and lipids demonstrated the importance of peptide binding to the biomembrane for whole membrane disruption.

• Journal of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.54 no.2
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• pp.183-191
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• 2010

The phase changes of 1-palmitoyl-$d_{31}$-2-oleoyl-sn-glycero-3-phosphatidylcholine (POPC_$d_{31}$) bilayers distorted by an antimicrobial peptide, a magainin 2 or an aurein 3.3 were investigated by using $^2H$ solid-state NMR (SSNMR) spectroscopy. From the theoretical simulation of the experimental $^2H$ solid-state NMR spectra the geometric structure constants and the lateral diffusion coefficients were obtained in the peptide-lipid mixture phases. Within five days of the peptide action on the lipid bilayers only the distorted alignment of the bilayers were measured but after 100 days an elliptic toroidal pore structure and an inverted hexagonal phase were formed in the presence of magainin 2 and aurein 3.3, respectively. In order to investigate the effect of an anionic lipid molecule on the actions of two peptides on the lipid bilayer, the same experiments were performed on the POPC_$d_{31}$/1-palmitoyl-2-oleoyl-sn-glycero-3-phosphatidylglycerol (POPG) bilayer and the significant differences in the actions of two peptides on two bilayers of POPC_$d_{31}$ and POPC_$d_{31}$/POPG were measured.

• Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.35 no.5
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• pp.1317-1322
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• 2014

Membrane disruption by an antimicrobial peptide (AMP) was investigated by measuring the $^2H$ solid-state nuclear magnetic resonance spectra of 1-palmitoyl-$d_{31}$-2-oleoyl-sn-glycero-3-phosphatidylcholine (POPC_$d_{31}$) in mixtures of POPC_$d_{31}$/cholesterol and either magainin 2 or aurein 3.3 deposited on thin cover-glass plates. The line shapes of the experimental $^2H$ solid-state nuclear magnetic resonance (SSNMR) spectra were best simulated by assuming the coexistence of a mosaic spread of bilayers containing pore structures and a fasttumbling isotropic phase or a hexagonal phase. Within a few days of incubation in a hydration chamber, an isotropic phase and a pore structure were induced by magainin 2, while in case of aurein 3.3 only an isotopic phase was induced in the presence of a bilayer phase. After an incubation period of over 100 days, alignment of the bilayers increased and the amount of the pore structure decreased in case of magainin 2. In contrast with magainin 2, aurein 3.3 induced a hexagonal phase at the peptide-to-lipid ratio of 1/20 and, interestingly, cholesterol was not found in the hexagonal phase induced by aurein 3.3. The experimental results indicate that magainin 2 is more effective in disrupting lipid bilayers containing cholesterol than aurein 3.3.