Nanoscale imaging reveals laterally expanding antimicrobial pores in lipid bilayers

作者：Rakowska Paulina D; Jiang Haibo; Ray Santanu; Pyne Alice; Lamarre Baptiste; Carr Matthew; Judge Peter J; Ravi Jascindra; Gerling Ulla I M; Koksch Beate; Martyna Glenn J; Hoogenboom Bart W; Watts Anthony; Crain Jason; Grovenor Chris R M; Ryadnov Maxim G^*

来源：Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2013, 110(22): 8918-8923.

DOI：10.1073/pnas.1222824110

• innate host defense
• de novo protein design
• nanometrology
• antibiotics
• nanoscopy

Antimicrobial peptides are postulated to disrupt microbial phospholipid membranes. The prevailing molecular model is based on the formation of stable or transient pores although the direct observation of the fundamental processes is lacking. By combining rational peptide design with topographical (atomic force microscopy) and chemical (nanoscale secondary ion mass spectrometry) imaging on the same samples, we show that pores formed by antimicrobial peptides in supported lipid bilayers are not necessarily limited to a particular diameter, nor they are transient, but can expand laterally at the nano-to-micrometer scale to the point of complete membrane disintegration. The results offer a mechanistic basis for membrane poration as a generic physicochemical process of cooperative and continuous peptide recruitment in the available phospholipid matrix.

• 出版日期2013-5-28