Different mechanisms of action of antimicrobial peptides: insights from fluorescence spectroscopy experiments and molecular dynamics simulations.

Most antimicrobial peptides exert their activity by interacting with bacterial membranes, thus perturbing their permeability. They are investigated as a possible solution to the insurgence of bacteria resistant to the presently available antibiotic drugs. However, several different models have been proposed for their mechanism of membrane perturbation, and the molecular details of this process are still debated.

Membrane perturbation by the antimicrobial peptide PMAP-23: a fluorescence and molecular dynamics study.

Several bioactive peptides exert their biological function by interacting with cellular membranes. Structural data on their location inside lipid bilayers are thus essential for a detailed understanding of their mechanism of action. We propose here a combined approach in which fluorescence spectroscopy and molecular dynamics (MD) simulations were applied to investigate the mechanism of membrane perturbation by the antimicrobial peptide PMAP-23.