Instituto de Ciencias Físicas, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (ICF-UNAM), Avenida Universidad 2001, Chamilpa, 62210 Cuernavaca, Morelos, Mexico.
Instituto de Ciencias Físicas, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (ICF-UNAM), Avenida Universidad 2001, Chamilpa, 62210 Cuernavaca, Morelos, Mexico.
Biochim Biophys Acta Biomembr. 2021 Apr 1;1863(4):183551. doi: 10.1016/j.bbamem.2021.183551. Epub 2021 Jan 16.
The cytoplasmic membrane is one of the most frequent cell targets of antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) and other biomolecules. Understanding the mechanism of action of AMPs at the molecular level is of utmost importance for designing of new membrane-specific molecules. In particular, the formation of pores, the structure and size of these pores are of great interest and require nanoscale resolution approaches, therefore, biophysical strategies are essential to achieve an understanding of these processes at this scale. In the case of membrane active peptides, pore formation or general membrane disruption is usually the last step before cell death, and so, pore size is generally directly associated to pore structure and stability and loss of cellular homeostasis, implicated in overall peptide activity. Up to date, there has not been a critical review discussing the methods that can be used specifically for estimating the pore dimensions induced by membrane active peptides. In this review we discuss the scope, relevance and popularity of the different biophysical techniques such as liposome leakage experiments, advanced microscopy, neutron or X-ray scattering, electrophysiological techniques and molecular dynamics studies, all of them useful for determining pore structure and dimension.
细胞质膜是抗菌肽（AMPs）和其他生物分子最常靶向的细胞靶标之一。在分子水平上了解 AMP 的作用机制对于设计新的膜特异性分子至关重要。特别是孔的形成、这些孔的结构和大小非常有趣，需要纳米级分辨率的方法，因此，生物物理策略对于在该尺度上理解这些过程是必不可少的。在膜活性肽的情况下，孔形成或一般的膜破坏通常是细胞死亡之前的最后一步，因此，孔的大小通常直接与孔的结构和稳定性以及细胞内稳态的丧失相关，这与肽的整体活性有关。迄今为止，还没有一篇评论文章专门讨论可用于估计膜活性肽诱导的孔尺寸的方法。在这篇综述中，我们讨论了不同生物物理技术的范围、相关性和流行程度，如脂质体渗漏实验、高级显微镜、中子或 X 射线散射、电生理学技术和分子动力学研究，所有这些技术都可用于确定孔的结构和尺寸。
