Computer simulations of membrane-lytic peptides: perspectives in drug design

Structure activity relationships were investigated for membrane-lytic peptides (MLP) Ltc1 and Ltc2a from the latarcin family. The peptides were studied via long-term molecular dynamics (MD) simulations in different membrane environments (detergent micelles, mixed lipid bilayers mimiking eukaryotic and bacterial membranes). The calculated structure of Ltc2a in sodium dodecyl sulfate micelle agrees well with the data obtained by (1)H-NMR spectroscopy. This validates the applied modeling approach. The binding mode of MLPs is governed by several factors: (i) the membrane surface curvature; (ii) the conformational plasticity and hydrophobic organization of the peptide, which depend on the arrangement of charged, non-polar and helix-breaking residues in the amino acid sequence. In contrast to Ltc1, insertion of Ltc2a into model membranes induces significant changes in dynamic behavior of lipids in the contact region. Such a prominent membrane destabilization correlates with high membrane-lytic activity of Ltc2a. In all cases the "membrane response" has a local character and is caused by formation of specific peptide-lipid contacts. Results of MD simulations of Ltc2a in model membranes were used to develop a number of its analogs with predefined activity.