Effect of Secondary Structure and Side Chain Length of Hydrophobic Amino Acid Residues on the Antimicrobial Activity and Toxicity of 14 Residue Long de novo AMPs.

This study showed that too long or short side chains increase the toxicity and lower the antimicrobial activity respectively. VV-14 was non-cytotoxic and highly potent in physiological salt concentrations against several pathogens, especially Salmonella typhi TY2 . The AMPs acted via membrane deformation, depolarisation and lysis. The activity of the AMPs was related to their ability of forming amphipathic helical conformation in the presence of microbial membrane mimics. Among AMPs with same charge, hydrophobic interaction in between the side chains of the amino acid residues with the membrane lipids determine their antimicrobial potency and cytotoxicity. Strikingly, an optimum hydrophobic interaction is the crux of generating highly potent non-cytotoxic AMPs. PMID: 33026188 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]
Source: ChemMedChem - Category: Chemistry Authors: Tags: ChemMedChem Source Type: research