Influence of lipid composition on membrane activity of synthetic antimicrobial oligomers

ORGN 680

Abhigyan Som, som@mail.pse.umass.edu1, Lihua Yang, lyang1@uiuc.edu2, Gerard C. L. Wong, gclwong@uiuc.edu2, and Gregory N. Tew, tew@mail.pse.umass.edu1. (1) Department of Polymer Science and Engineering, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA 01003, (2) Department of Material Science and Engineering, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL 61801
Host defense peptides (HDPs) are amphiphilic in nature and comprise a key component of innate immunity for a wide range of multicellular organisms. Recently, facially amphiphilic synthetic analogs of HDPs have demonstrated broad-spectrum antimicrobial activity via permeating bacterial membrane selectively, although the precise molecular mechanism is still unclear. We have designed a series of facially amphiphilic oligomers that mimic the complex structures and remarkable biological properties of HDPs. Subtle structural changes of these antimicrobial oligomers (AMOs) dramatically altered their biological activity as well as selectivity between bacterial cell membrane and mammalian cell membrane. The mode of interactions of AMOs with lipid membranes has been elucidated by fluorescent dye leakage assays, and by synchrotron small angle x-ray scattering (SAXS).
 

Biologically-Related Molecules and Processes
8:00 AM-12:00 PM, Wednesday, August 22, 2007 BCEC -- 258B, Oral

Division of Organic Chemistry

The 234th ACS National Meeting, Boston, MA, August 19-23, 2007