Rationally designed antimicrobial peptides: Insight into the mechanism of eleven residue peptides against microbial infections

Abstract The widespread abuse of antibiotics has led to the use of antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) as a replacement for the existing conventional therapeutic agents for combating microbial infections. The broad-spectrum activity and the resilient nature of AMPs has mainly aggrandized their utilization. Here, we report the design of non-toxic, non-hemolytic and salt tolerant undecapeptides (AMP21-24), derived by modification of a peptide P5 (NH2-LRWLRRLCONH2) reported earlier by our group. Our results depict that the designed peptides show potency against several bacterial as well as fungal strains. Circular dichroism (CD) spectroscopy in combination with molecular dynamic (MD) simulations confirm that the peptides are unstructured. Intrinsic tryptophan fluorescence, quenching as well as interaction studies using isothermal calorimetry (ITC) of these peptides in the presence of biological microbial membrane mimics establish the strong microbial membrane affinity of these AMPs. Membrane permeabilization assay and cytoplasmic membrane depolarization studies of Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Candida albicans in the presence of AMPs also hint towards the AMP-membrane interactions. Leakage of calcein dye from membrane mimic liposomes, live cell NMR and field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM) studies suggest that the AMPs may be primarily involved in membrane perturbation leading to release of intracellular substances resulting in subsequent microbial cell death. Confocal laser scanning microscopy (CLSM) shows localization of the peptides throughout the cell, indicating the possibility of secondary mode of actions. Electrostatic interactions seem to govern the preferential binding of the AMPs to the microbial membranes in comparison to the mammalian membranes as seen from the MD simulations.