Interaction of Phospholipid Langmuir Monolayers with an Antibiotic Peptide Conjugate

Interaction mechanism of chitosan oligomers in pure water with cell membrane models studied by SFG vibrational spectroscopy

Chitosan is a versatile and biocompatible cationic antimicrobial polymer obtained from sustainable sources that is effective against a wide range of microorganisms. Although it is soluble only at low pH, chitosan oligomers (ChitO) are soluble in pure water and thus more appropriate for antibacterial applications. Although there is a vast literature on chitosan's antimicrobial activity, the molecular details of its interaction with biomembranes remain unclear. Here we investigate these molecular interactions by resorting to phospholipid Langmuir films (zwitterionic DPPC and anionic DPPG) as simplified membrane models (for mammalian and bacterial membranes, respectively), and using SFG vibrational spectroscopy to probe lipid tail conformation, headgroup dynamics and interfacial water orientation. For comparison, we also investigate the interactions of another simple cationic antimicrobial polyelectrolyte, poly(allylamine) hydrochloride - PAH. By forming the lipid films over the polyelectrolyte solutions, we found that both have only a very small interaction with DPPC, but PAH adsorption is able to invert the interfacial water orientation (membrane potential). This might explain why ChitO is compatible with mammalian cells, while PAH is toxic. In contrast, their interaction with DPPG films is much stronger, even more so for ChitO, with both insertion within the lipid film and interaction with the oppositely charged headgroups. Again, PAH adsorption inverts the membrane potential, while ChitO does not. Finally, ChitO interaction with DPPG is weaker if the antimicrobial is injected underneath a pre-assembled Langmuir film, and its interaction mode depends on the time interval between end of film compression and ChitO injection. These differences between ChitO and PAH effects on the model membranes highlight the importance of molecular structure and intermolecular interactions for their bioactivity, and therefore this study may provide insights for the rational design of more effective antimicrobial molecules.

Membrane model as key tool in the study of glutathione-s-transferase mediated anticancer drug resistance

Glutathione-s-transferase is believed to be involved in the resistance to chemotherapeutic drugs, which depends on the interaction with the cell membranes. In this study, we employed Langmuir monolayers of a mixture of phospholipids and cholesterol (MIX) as models for tumor cell membranes and investigated their interaction with the anticancer drugs cisplatin (CDDP) and doxorubicin (DOX). We found that both DOX and CDDP expand and affect the elasticity of MIX monolayers, but these effects are hindered when glutathione-s-transferase (GST) and its cofactor glutathione (GSH) are incorporated. Changes are induced by DOX or CDDP on the polarization-modulated infrared reflection absorption spectroscopy (PM-IRRAS) data for MIX/GST/GSH monolayers, thus denoting some degree of interaction that is not sufficient to alter the monolayer mechanical properties. Overall, the results presented here give support to the hypothesis of the inactivation of DOX and CDDP by GST and point to possible directions to detect and fight drug resistance.

Interactions of l-arginine with Langmuir monolayers of common phospholipids at the air-water interface

The interactions of l-arginine (l-arg) with Langmuir monolayers of three most common phospholipids, which are sodium salt of dipalmitoylphosphatidylglycerol (DPPG), dipalmitoylphosphatidylcholine (DPPC) and dipalmitoylphosphatidylethanolamine (DPPE), have been investigated at the air-water interface. The surface pressure-area (π-A) isotherms of these monolayers have been measured with a film balance and monolayer morphology has been observed by a Brewster angle microscopy (BAM). The DPPG monolayers on pure water do not show any phase transition but show irregular shaped condensed phases formed just after evaporation of the solvent at 20 °C. However, this monolayer on l-arg solution subphase indicates a first-order phase transition from liquid expanded to liquid condensed (LE-LC) phases and forms LC domains at the same temperature. With an increase in the l-arg concentration in the subphase up to 5.0 × 10^-4 M, the π-A shows an overall increasingly greater expansion in the molecular area. All of the π-A isotherms recorded on ≥5.0 × 10^-4 M l-arg solution subphases almost coincide with each other. These changes in the phase behavior have been explained by the fact that l-arg having guanidinium cationic group undergoes strong hydrogen bonding interaction with the anionic phosphatidylglycerol (PG-) head group. The bonding between two molecules is further strengthened by electrostatic attraction between cationic l-arg and anionic PG- ions. The BAM observation of the monolayer morphology supports this explanation. On the other hand, a very negligible interaction has been observed between l-arg and DPPC or DPPE monolayers. The π-A isotherms in the presence of l-arg for both the amphiphiles show a very little expansion only in the LE phase region, but coincide in the so called solid phase region. The monolayer morphology of both the monolayers also supports these results. This little effect of expansion in the LE region may be explained by the ion-pair formation between cationic l-arg and anionic head groups in the monolayers at lower pressures. However, due to compression at high pressure, the l-arg molecules are squeezed out from the amphiphile head groups.

Effect of fluoxetine at different concentrations on the adsorption behavior of Langmuir monolayers

Fluoxetine (FLX), approved for the treatment of depression and anxiety by the FDA in 2002, is an amphiphilic antidepressant. In general, amphiphilic drugs have high membrane permeability. Therefore, the interactions between these drugs and monolayers have been widely concerned. In this study, the adsorption of FLX on dipalmitoylphosphatidylcholine (DPPC) monolayers at different concentrations and surface pressures have been investigated by pressure-area isotherms (π-A), adsorption curves, compression-expansion curves, and atomic force microscopy (AFM). Our data showed that the adsorption behavior was related to the surface pressures and FLX concentrations in the subphase. The FLX that was added in the subphase under lower surface pressure (π = 10 mN/m) was easily adsorbed on DPPC monolayers. The stability of the monolayers was strong. The adsorption of FLX on DPPC monolayers and the stability decreased when π = 20 mN/m. In addition, the adsorption behavior and stability increased with increasing FLX concentrations. The AFM images of the monolayers confirmed the results of fitted adsorption curves. This study will be critical to our understanding of the interactions between drugs and lipid monolayers.

Membrane affinity and fluorescent labelling: comparative study of monolayer interaction, cellular uptake and cytotoxicity profile of carboxyfluorescein-conjugated cationic peptides

Fluorescent labelling is a common approach to reveal the molecular details of cellular uptake, internalisation, transport, distribution processes in biological systems. The conjugation with a fluorescent moiety might affect relevant physico-chemical and in vitro transport properties of the bioactive component. A representative set of seven cationic peptides-including cell-penetrating peptides as well as antimicrobial peptides and synthetic derivatives-was selected for our comparative study. Membrane affinity of the peptides and their 5(6)-carboxyfluorescein (Cf) derivatives was determined quantitatively and compared applying Langmuir monolayer of zwitterionic (DPPC) and negatively charged (DPPC + DPPG) lipids as cell membrane models. The interaction with neutral lipid layer is mainly governed by the overall hydrophobicity of the molecule which is remarkably increased by Cf-conjugation for the most hydrophobic Magainin, Melittin and Transportan. A significantly enhanced membrane affinity was detected in negatively charged lipid model monolayer for all of the peptides since the combination of electrostatic and hydrophobic interaction is active in that case. The Cf-conjugation improved the penetration ability of Penetratin and Dhvar4 suggesting that both the highly charged character (Z/n) and the increased hydrophobicity by Cf-conjugation present important contribution to membrane interaction. This effect might also responsible for the observed high in vitro internalisation rate of Penetratin and Dhvar4, while according to in vitro studies they did not cause damage of cell membrane. From the experiments with the given seven cationic peptides, it can be concluded that the Cf-conjugation alters the degree of membrane interaction of such peptides which are moderately hydrophobic and highly charged.

Bilayer Charge Reversal and Modification of Lipid Organization by Dendrimers as Observed by Sum-Frequency Vibrational Spectroscopy

Polyamidoamine (PAMAM) dendrimers are hyperbranched, nanosized polymers with promising biomedical applications as nanocarriers in targeted drug delivery and gene therapy. For the development of safe dendrimer-based biomedical applications it is necessary to gain an understanding of the detailed mechanism of the interactions of both cationic and anionic dendrimers with cell membranes. To characterize dendrimer-membrane interactions we applied solid-supported lipid bilayers as biomembrane models and utilized infrared-visible sum-frequency vibrational spectroscopy to independently probe the interactions of cationic G5-NH2 and anionic G4.5-COONa dendrimers with the two leaflets of the lipid bilayers. Interaction with both dendrimers led to changes in the interfacial water structure and charge density as evidenced by the changes in the OH band intensities in the sum-frequency spectra of the bilayers. Interaction with the G5-NH2 dendrimer also led to a unique inversion of the sign of the OH-stretch amplitudes, in addition to a decrease in their absolute values. We suggest that the positively charged amino groups on the G5-NH2 dendrimer surface bind to the negatively charged bilayer, while uncompensated positive charges not involved in the binding cause a reversal of the electric field and thus an opposite orientation of the interfacial water molecules. More subtle but nonetheless significant changes were seen in the relative magnitudes of the CH amplitudes. The methyl antisymmetric to symmetric stretch amplitude ratios are altered, implying changes in the tilt angles of the phospholipid alkyl chains. The conformational order of the phospholipid alkyl chains of both leaflets is also influenced by the G5-NH2 dendrimer while G4.5-COONa has no effect on the alkyl chain conformation.

Membrane interaction of antimicrobial peptides using E. coli lipid extract as model bacterial cell membranes and SFG spectroscopy

Supported lipid bilayers are used as a convenient model cell membrane system to study biologically important molecule-lipid interactions in situ. However, the lipid bilayer models are often simple and the acquired results with these models may not provide all pertinent information related to a real cell membrane. In this work, we use sum frequency generation (SFG) vibrational spectroscopy to study molecular-level interactions between the antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) MSI-594, ovispirin-1 G18, magainin 2 and a simple 1,2-dipalmitoyl-d62-sn-glycero-3-phosphoglycerol (dDPPG)/1-palmitoyl-2-oleoyl-sn-glycero-3-phosphoglycerol (POPG) bilayer. We compared such interactions to those between the AMPs and a more complex dDPPG/Escherichia coli (E. coli) polar lipid extract bilayer. We show that to fully understand more complex aspects of peptide-bilayer interaction, such as interaction kinetics, a heterogeneous lipid composition is required, such as the E. coli polar lipid extract. The discrepancy in peptide-bilayer interaction is likely due in part to the difference in bilayer charge between the two systems since highly negative charged lipids can promote more favorable electrostatic interactions between the peptide and lipid bilayer. Results presented in this paper indicate that more complex model bilayers are needed to accurately analyze peptide-cell membrane interactions and demonstrates the importance of using an appropriate lipid composition to study AMP interaction properties.

Comparison between the behavior of different hydrophobic peptides allowing membrane anchoring of proteins

Membrane binding of proteins such as short chain dehydrogenase reductases or tail-anchored proteins relies on their N- and/or C-terminal hydrophobic transmembrane segment. In this review, we propose guidelines to characterize such hydrophobic peptide segments using spectroscopic and biophysical measurements. The secondary structure content of the C-terminal peptides of retinol dehydrogenase 8, RGS9-1 anchor protein, lecithin retinol acyl transferase, and of the N-terminal peptide of retinol dehydrogenase 11 has been deduced by prediction tools from their primary sequence as well as by using infrared or circular dichroism analyses. Depending on the solvent and the solubilization method, significant structural differences were observed, often involving α-helices. The helical structure of these peptides was found to be consistent with their presumed membrane binding. Langmuir monolayers have been used as membrane models to study lipid-peptide interactions. The values of maximum insertion pressure obtained for all peptides using a monolayer of 1,2-dioleoyl-sn-glycero-3-phospho-ethanolamine (DOPE) are larger than the estimated lateral pressure of membranes, thus suggesting that they bind membranes. Polarization modulation infrared reflection absorption spectroscopy has been used to determine the structure and orientation of these peptides in the absence and in the presence of a DOPE monolayer. This lipid induced an increase or a decrease in the organization of the peptide secondary structure. Further measurements are necessary using other lipids to better understand the membrane interactions of these peptides.