新型抗菌肽的设计、活性研究及与磷脂相互作用的计算模拟

设计合成了多个具有2个活性序列的线性和环状多肽及具有单个活性序列的短链多肽, 研究了它们的杀菌活性, 发现其杀菌活性顺序为长链肽>环状肽>短链肽, 特别是线性的Linear-KT和Linear-KS对多种革兰氏阴性菌和阳性菌均具有较高的杀菌活性. 采用MTT法考察了Linear-KT和Linear-KS对正常细胞的毒性, 其中Linear-KS表现出较低的细胞毒性, 优于阳性对照多粘菌素B. 利用计算模拟的方法计算了多肽与细菌细胞膜中磷脂酰甘油(DMPG)的相互作用. 结果表明, 多肽和DMPG的结合能也表现出长链肽>环状肽>短链肽的规律, 特别是Linear-KT和Linear-KS具有较高的结合能. 长链肽含有2个活性序列, 可提供多个荷正电的氨基酸与荷负电的磷脂结合, 结合能较大, 杀菌活性较强. 同时, 柔性的结构及Linear-KT和Linear-KS中丝氨酸和苏氨酸的β碳上的羟基可与磷脂上的羰基形成多个氢键, 进一步增大了结合能. 计算模拟的方法为抗菌肽的杀菌活性从理论上提供了一定的依据.     

胆固醇修饰的非天然HR序列肽类HIV-1融合抑制剂的合成及活性初筛

将胆固醇分子通过1个半胱氨酸侧链硫醚键和1个β-丙氨酸连接臂引入到所设计的非天然HR序列抗HIV融合活性多肽的C端和N端,合成了与天然C肽序列同源性很低的非天然序列的类肽抗HIV融合分子,以考察胆固醇修饰对非天然HR序列活性的影响,探讨克服耐药性的新思路.生物活性评价结果表明,胆固醇与HR肽C端结合物抑制HIV融合活性显著提高,而连接到N端的序列则完全失去了抗病毒活性,表明所设计的非天然序列确实具有与天然序列类似的作用机制.     

免标记地检测二元磷脂膜中磷脂分布的表面增强拉曼成像方法

以银纳米粒子自组装层为增强基底,我们报道了一种用于检测二元磷脂膜中具有相似结构磷脂分布的表面增强拉曼成像方法,这种方法具有免标记及花费低廉的优点.对探针分子对巯基苯胺（p-aminothiophenol）,实验中所用的银纳米粒子自组装层表现出强的表面增强拉曼活性及良好的重现性.原子力显微镜表征结果证明了完整的磷脂膜在银纳米粒子自组装层上的形成.以这种银自组装层为基底,我们得到了磷脂膜中二肉豆蔻酰磷脂酰甘油（DMPG）和二肉豆蔻酰磷脂酰胆碱（DMPC）的表面增强拉曼光谱,并且利用DMPG的光谱特征峰,1482cm-1,区分这两种磷脂.而通过1482cm-1和1650cm-1的峰强比（R1482/1650）,可以同时得知在混合磷脂膜上某点这两种磷脂所占的比例：R1482/1650值的增加意味着DMPG的增加和DMPC的减少.磷脂膜的表面增强拉曼成像则是由R1482/1650值和对应的位置信息组合而得到,其成像结果表明了带电的磷脂DMPG在混合磷脂膜中的聚集.我们所报道的基于表面增强拉曼成像技术的方法提供了一种便利的、免标记的和花费低廉的途径来研究磷脂膜的结构,例如磷脂域和脂阀.     

不同的引导肽对丝状噬菌体基因8蛋白展示外源多肽的影响

为了研究不同的引导肽对在基因8蛋白上展示外源多肽的影响,利用基因工程方法将一短肽插入基因8蛋白的N端,并将引导多肽去除或用基因3蛋白的引导肽序列替代基因8的引导肽序列.采用放射性脉冲追踪技术检测不同的引导肽对在基因8蛋白上展示外源多肽的作用.结果表明,无引导肽序列的引导,蛋白前体无法向成熟蛋白转化.基因3蛋白的引导肽可以引导展示有外源多肽的基因8蛋白,完成从前体向成熟蛋白的转化,但转化率明显下降.研究结果对阐明噬菌体外壳蛋白在大肠杆菌中的跨膜机制具有重要的意义.     

类蛋白反应修饰海地瓜酶解物及ACE抑制肽的制备

采用类蛋白反应修饰海地瓜体壁蛋白酶解物,制得修饰肽的血管紧张素转换酶(ACE)抑制活性与原酶解液的活性相比显著提高;模拟消化实验结果表明,修饰肽与胃肠蛋白酶作用后可增强其降压活性;细胞毒性实验结果表明,样品浓度在低于10 mg/mL时对犬肾细胞(MDCK)无毒性,且低浓度可以促进细胞生长.采用超滤、Sephadex G-15凝胶柱层析和RP-HPLC等分离技术纯化修饰产物,得到高活性ACE抑制肽(IC50值为3.67μmol/L),序列结构为NQNFVQYTTNT.紫外光谱分析结果表明,修饰肽与ACE结合可引起吸光度变化.用SYBYL软件对抑制肽与ACE活性位点进行模拟对接,发现该抑制肽能与ACE很好地结合.     

牡蛎源类蛋白反应修饰肽的分离纯化及肽锌螯合物的结构表征

以牡蛎为原料制备了类蛋白反应修饰肽,利用Sephadex G-15凝胶层析柱和反向高效液相色谱(RP-HPLC)等分离技术得到1条锌离子螯合活性为161 mg/g的多肽(M_w=835),多肽序列为EVPPEEH.以测得的肽序列为模板合成多肽,将纯肽与锌离子进行螯合反应制备肽锌螯合物.螯合物的红外光谱和圆二色光谱表征结果表明,锌离子主要与多肽链上的羰基氧发生相互作用.与多肽的空间结构相比,螯合物的无规则卷曲结构减少,β转角增加而β折叠减少.由肽锌螯合物的分子模拟和二级质谱结果可知,多肽与锌离子螯合后有2种空间构象:一种通过六配位的方式螯合1个锌离子,其中主要的螯合位点为多肽Val-2和Pro-3或者Glu-5和Glu-6之间的羰基氧;另一种是通过四配位的方式螯合1个锌离子,主要的螯合位点为多肽Glu-5和Glu-6之间的羰基氧.     

血清多肽组及其个体差异的纳升液相色谱-高分辨串联质谱分析

分析和比较疾病组及健康对照组的混合样品是血清多肽组生物标记物研究的常用方法,但对健康个体多肽组的差异和共性关注较少.本研究利用纳升液相色谱-高分辨四级杆飞行时间质谱鉴定健康人混合血清样品(20例)的多肽组,阐明血清多肽组的分子量分布等一般特征,进而选取6例个体样品单独分析并与混合样品的分析结果进行比较,说明正常健康样品之间的个体差异和共同成分.结果表明,可鉴定序列的血清多肽组的分子量范围在7000 Da以下,纤维蛋白原α链等蛋白质所属肽段的检出频率最高,肽段在蛋白质水平上分布具有不均一性,排在前10％的蛋白质占据了约50％的总肽段,而后40％的蛋白质只有1条检出肽段.此外,在所有样品中都检测到了来自于8个蛋白质的12个共同肽段,检测到了N端乙酰化、氨基酸氧化、磷酸化、脱氨化和脱水等翻译后修饰和明显的阶梯序列现象.本研究在肽段序列水平分析了血清多肽组的基本特征和个体差异,可为血清多肽组生物标志物研究提供参考.     

多肽序列的结构特征与其MHC限制性

从多肽序列的一级结构出发,基于多肽序列中氨基酸侧链间距离和氨基酸侧链的电性特征,构建了多肽序列特征矢量,简称ζ矢量,选取文献中主要组织相容性复合物(MHC)中的14个A^d限制性和14个非A^d限制性多肽序列作为训练集建立辅助性T细胞(helperTlymphocytc,Th)表位预测的定量模型,为了检验该预报系统的精确性,进行了随机抽样检验和交互检验.结果表明,该预报系统具有稳定性好、预测能力强的特点,该方法可用于人的MHCⅠ和Ⅱ类表位的预测、蛋白质抗原免疫识别、亚单位疫苗分子设计及研制.     

通过基于多肽酰肼的化学连接反应合成高张力环状四肽

刘磊课题组采用其发展的基于多肽酰肼的化学连接反应, 成功合成了一系列高张力环状四肽分子. 多肽酰肼在温和氧化条件下活化为多肽酰基叠氮中间体, 随后与4-巯基苯乙酸形成硫酯, 进而经由分子内天然化学连接反应得到环状四肽. 通过后续的自由基脱硫反应, 可得到连接位点为丙氨酸的产物.     

蜂毒肽及其类似物的抗菌活性、溶血活性及与磷脂膜的作用

用CD谱测定了蜂毒肽及其类似物在Tris缓冲液、含2mol/LNaCl的Tris缓冲液和质量分数为10%的六氟异丙醇(HFIP)水溶液中的二级结构.结果表明,蜂毒肽及其类似物在Tris缓冲液中无确定的二级结构.在含2mol/LNaCl的Tris缓冲液中的α-螺旋结构的含量大大增加,表明其形成聚集体.未发现聚集与抗菌活性或溶血活性之间有相关性.在10%HFIP溶液(模拟生物膜环境)中的α-螺旋结构的含量大大增加,表明这些多肽具有内在形成α-螺旋结构的倾向.比较二级结构与抗菌和溶血活性发现,细菌细胞膜促进α-螺旋结构形成的环境比红血球细胞膜和HFIP水溶液强得多,而红血球细胞膜和HFIP水溶液的环境类似.     

Effects of the phosphatidylglycerol head group on the binding of short dermcidin-derived peptides to the phospholipid membrane surface

Dermcidin (DCD) is a human peptide composed of 110 amino acids. When secreted into sweat, DCD undergoes postsecretory proteolytic processing to give the short antimicrobial peptides SSL-23 and SSL-25. As an initial phase of studies directed toward understanding the structural basis of the biological functions of these peptides, we chemically synthesized naturally occurring SSL-23 and SSL-25, as well as the artificial sequences SSL-21 and SSL-27, and analyzed their molecular interaction with bacterial and mammalian model surfaces. While dynamic-coating HPLC and CD spectroscopy revealed that the four SSL peptides selectively bound to a bacterial model membrane containing 1,2-dimyristoyl phosphatidylglycerol (DMPG) and underwent large structural changes, ³¹P NMR studies of the liposomes suggested that the attractive interaction between the peptides and DMPG did not lead to ion-pore formation or disruption of the model membrane. Our results strongly indicate that the SSL peptides express their selectivity to microorganisms by recognizing the head groups of their cell surface lipid.     

Novel Antimicrobial Peptides from a Cecropin-Like Region of Heteroscorpine-1 from Heterometrus laoticus Venom with Membrane Disruption Activity

The increasing antimicrobial-resistant prevalence has become a severe health problem. It has led to the invention of a new antimicrobial agent such as antimicrobial peptides. Heteroscorpine-1 is an antimicrobial peptide that has the ability to kill many bacterial strains. It consists of 76 amino acid residues with a cecropin-like region in N-terminal and a defensin-like region in the C-terminal. The cecropin-like region from heteroscorpine-1 (CeHS-1) is similar to cecropin B, but it lost its glycine-proline hinge region. The bioinformatics prediction was used to help the designing of mutant peptides. The addition of glycine-proline hinge and positively charged amino acids, the deletion of negatively charged amino acids, and the optimization of the hydrophobicity of the peptide resulted in two mutant peptides, namely, CeHS-1 GP and CeHS-1 GPK. The new mutant peptide showed higher antimicrobial activity than the native peptide without increasing toxicity. The interaction of the peptides with the membrane showed that the peptides were capable of disrupting both the inner and outer bacterial cell membrane. Furthermore, the SEM analysis showed that the peptides created the pore in the bacterial cell membrane resulted in cell membrane disruption. In conclusion, the mutants of CeHS-1 had the potential to develop as novel antimicrobial peptides.     

Multiple Mechanisms of the Synthesized Antimicrobial Peptide TS against Gram-Negative Bacteria for High Efficacy Antibacterial Action In Vivo

The emergence of drug-resistant bacteria emphasizes the urgent need for novel antibiotics. The antimicrobial peptide TS shows extensive antibacterial activity in vitro and in vivo, especially in gram-negative bacteria; however, its antibacterial mechanism is unclear. Here, we find that TS without hemolytic activity disrupts the integrity of the outer bacterial cell membrane by displacing divalent cations and competitively binding lipopolysaccharides. In addition, the antimicrobial peptide TS can inhibit and kill E. coli by disintegrating the bacteria from within by interacting with bacterial DNA. Thus, antimicrobial peptide TS’s multiple antibacterial mechanisms may not easily induce bacterial resistance, suggesting use as an antibacterial drug to be for combating bacterial infections in the future.     

Antimicrobial activity of simplified mimics of celogentin C

Linear and bicyclic analogues of the peptide natural product, celogentin C, have been prepared in which the sidechain–sidechain crosslinks in celogentin are omitted or replaced with a mesitylenyl moiety. The simplified bicyclic peptides display moderate antibacterial activity, potentially through inhibition of bacterial protomicrotubule formation, while the linear analogs show higher antibacterial activity through a possible membrane disruption mechanism.     

High-throughput sequence determination of cyclic peptide library members by partial Edman degradation/mass spectrometry

Cyclic peptides provide attractive lead compounds for drug discovery and excellent molecular probes in biomedical research. Large combinatorial libraries of cyclic peptides can now be routinely synthesized by the split-and-pool method and screened against biological targets. However, post-screening sequence determination of hit peptides has been problematic. In this report, a high-throughput method for the sequence determination of cyclic peptide library members has been developed. TentaGel microbeads (90 mum) were spatially segregated into outer and inner layers; cyclic peptides were displayed on the bead surface, whereas the inner core of each bead contained the corresponding linear peptide as the encoding sequence. After screening of the cyclic peptide library against a macromolecular target, the identity of hit peptides was determined by sequencing the linear encoding peptides inside the bead using a partial Edman degradation/mass spectrometry method. On-bead screening of an octapeptide library (theoretical diversity of 160 000) identified cyclic peptides that bind to streptavidin. A 400-member library of tyrocidine A analogues was synthesized on TentaGel macrobeads and solution-phase screening of the library directly against bacterial cells identified a tyrocidine analogue of improved antibacterial activity. Our results demonstrate that the new method for cyclic peptide sequence determination is reliable, operationally simple, rapid, and inexpensive and should greatly expand the utility of cyclic peptides in biomedical research.     

Constraining Cyclic Peptides To Mimic Protein Structure Motifs

Many proteins exert their biological activities through small exposed surface regions called epitopes that are folded peptides of well‐defined three‐dimensional structures. Short synthetic peptide sequences corresponding to these bioactive protein surfaces do not form thermodynamically stable protein‐like structures in water. However, short peptides can be induced to fold into protein‐like bioactive conformations (strands, helices, turns) by cyclization, in conjunction with the use of other molecular constraints, that helps to fine‐tune three‐dimensional structure. Such constrained cyclic peptides can have protein‐like biological activities and potencies, enabling their uses as biological probes and leads to therapeutics, diagnostics and vaccines. This Review highlights examples of cyclic peptides that mimic three‐dimensional structures of strand, turn or helical segments of peptides and proteins, and identifies some additional restraints incorporated into natural product cyclic peptides and synthetic macrocyclic peptidomimetics that refine peptide structure and confer biological properties.     

Designed alpha-helical barrels for charge-selective peptide translocation

Synthetic alpha-helix based pores for selective sensing of peptides have not been characterized previously. Here, we report large transmembrane pores, pPorA formed from short synthetic alpha-helical peptides of tunable conductance and selectivity for single-molecule sensing of peptides. We quantified the selective translocation kinetics of differently charged cationic and anionic peptides through these synthetic pores at single-molecule resolution. The charged peptides are electrophoretically pulled into the pores resulting in an increase in the dissociation rate with the voltage indicating successful translocation of peptides. More specifically, we elucidated the charge pattern lining the pore lumen and the orientation of the pores in the membrane based on the asymmetry in the peptide-binding kinetics. The salt and pH-dependent measurements confirm the electrostatic dominance and charge selectivity in controlling target peptide interaction with the pores. Remarkably, we tuned the selectivity of the pores to charged peptides by modifying the charge composition of the pores, thus establishing the molecular and electrostatic basis of peptide translocation. We suggest that these synthetic pores that selectively conduct specific ions and biomolecules are advantageous for nanopore proteomics analysis and synthetic nanobiotechnology applications.

Synthetic alpha-helix based pores for selective sensing of peptides have not been characterized previously.     

Topochemical exploration of potent compounds using retro-enantiomer libraries of cyclic pentapeptides

Cyclic pentapeptides have been adopted as conformationally restricted peptide templates to dispose pharmacophores of bioactive peptides. In our recent study, use of two orthogonal cyclic pentapeptide libraries involving conformation-based and sequence-based libraries containing critical residues of a bioactive peptide led to the discovery of potent downsized peptides that possess activity comparable to that of the parent peptide. The present study demonstrates that a third library consisting of retro-enantiomers (retro-inverso peptides) that possess not only all residues with the opposite configuration to those in the corresponding original peptide but also amino acid sequences with reversed arrangement, is important as an alternative library for rationally finding active compounds.     

Phosphate-mediated arginine insertion into lipid membranes and pore formation by a cationic membrane peptide from solid-state NMR

The insertion of charged amino acid residues into the hydrophobic part of lipid bilayers is energetically unfavorable yet found in many cationic membrane peptides and protein domains. To understand the mechanism of this translocation, we measured the (13)C-(31)P distances for an Arg-rich beta-hairpin antimicrobial peptide, PG-1, in the lipid membrane using solid-state NMR. Four residues, including two Arg's, scattered through the peptide were chosen for the distance measurements. Surprisingly, all residues show short distances to the lipid (31)P: 4.0-6.5 A in anionic POPE/POPG membranes and 6.5-8.0 A in zwitterionic POPC membranes. The shortest distance of 4.0 A, found for a guanidinium Czeta at the beta-turn, suggests N-H...O-P hydrogen bond formation. Torsion angle measurements of the two Arg's quantitatively confirm that the peptide adopts a beta-hairpin conformation in the lipid bilayer, and gel-phase 1H spin diffusion from water to the peptide indicates that PG-1 remains transmembrane in the gel phase of the membrane. For this transmembrane beta-hairpin peptide to have short (13)C-(31)P distances for multiple residues in the molecule, some phosphate groups must be embedded in the hydrophobic part of the membrane, with the local (31)P plane parallel to the beta-strand. This provides direct evidence for toroidal pores, where some lipid molecules change their orientation to merge the two monolayers. We propose that the driving force for this toroidal pore formation is guanidinium-phosphate complexation, where the cationic Arg residues drag the anionic phosphate groups along as they insert into the hydrophobic part of the membrane. This phosphate-mediated translocation of guanidinium ions may underlie the activity of other Arg-rich antimocrobial peptides and may be common among cationic membrane proteins.