Modulating charge-dependent and folding-mediated antimicrobial interactions at peptide–lipid interfaces

Peptide–lipid interactions support a variety of biological functions. Of particular interest are those that underpin fundamental mechanisms of innate immunity that are programmed in host defense or antimicrobial peptide sequences found virtually in all multicellular organisms. Here we synthetically modulate antimicrobial peptide–lipid interactions using an archetypal helical antimicrobial peptide and synthetic membranes mimicking bacterial and mammalian membranes in solution. We probe these interactions as a function of membrane-induced folding, membrane stability and peptide–lipid ratios using a correlative approach encompassing light scattering and spectroscopy measurements such as circular dichroism spectroscopy, fluorescence and nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy. The peptide behavior is assessed against that of its anionic counterpart having similar propensities for α-helical folding. The results indicate strong correlations between peptide folding and membrane type, supporting folding-responsive binding of antimicrobial peptides to bacterial membranes. The study provides a straightforward approach for modulating structure–activity relationships in the context of membrane-induced antimicrobial action, thus holding promise for the rational design of potent antimicrobial agents.