Cationic Lytic Peptides Research Articles

Artificial Nanocage Formed via Self-Assembly of β-Annulus Peptide for Delivering Biofunctional Proteins into Cell Interiors.

Nanocarriers that deliver functional proteins to cell interiors are an attractive platform for the intracellular delivery of intact proteins without further modification, with in vivo compatibility. Development of efficient methods for cargo protein encapsulation and release in recipient cell cytosol is needed. Herein, we assess the feasibility of the abovementioned requirements using a protein nanocage (artificial nanocage) without compromising the structure and functions of the original protein and allowing for design flexibility of the surfaces and interiors. The protein nanocage formed via the self-assembly of the β-annulus peptide (24-amino acid peptide) in water was used as a model framework. The nitrilotriacetic acid moiety was displayed on the nanocage lumen for effective encapsulation of hexahistidine-tagged proteins in the presence of Ni2+, and the amphiphilic cationic lytic peptide HAad was displayed on a nanocage surface to attain cell permeability. Successful intracellular delivery of cargo proteins and targeting of cytosolic proteins by a nanobody were achieved, indicating the validity of the approach employed in this study.

Use of homoarginine to obtain attenuated cationic membrane lytic peptides

Our research group has been studying the design of intracellular delivery peptides based on cationic lytic peptides. By placing negatively charged amino acids on potentially hydrophobic faces of the peptides, membrane lytic activity is attenuated on the cell surface, whereas it recovers in endosomes, enabling cytosolic delivery of proteins including antibodies. These lytic peptides generally contain multiple lysines, facilitating cell surface interaction and membrane perturbation. This study evaluated the effect of lysine-to-homoarginine substitution using HAad as a model delivery peptide. The resulting peptide had a comparable or better delivery efficacy for Cre recombinase, antibodies, and the Cas9/sgRNA complex with one-quarter of the concentration of HAad, implying that a subtle structural difference can affect delivery activity.

Rational Design Principles of Attenuated Cationic Lytic Peptides for Intracellular Delivery of Biomacromolecules.

Intracellular delivery of bioactive macromolecules via endocytic pathways has utility in biotechnological and medicinal applications. Various endosomolytic peptides bearing glutamic acid (Glu) residues have been developed with the aim to achieve selective lysis of endosomal membranes without damaging cell membranes (plasma membranes) to release endosome-entrapped macromolecules and obtain their bioactivity. Glu residues on peptides are negatively charged in the extracellular medium, and substitution of this residue onto membrane-lytic peptides prevents its peptide-membrane interaction and its lytic activity. On the other hand, within endosomes, which have a reduced pH of ∼5, Glu is protonated, resulting in the reduction of the hydrophilicity of the peptide, unmasking its lytic activity. Despite this, a limited number of studies have elucidated the optimum positions for Glu substitution. This report investigated the positioning of Glu and the endosomolytic activities of cationic lytic peptides, ponericin-W3, and melittin. By cell-based assays, biophysical analyses, and molecular dynamics simulations, we found that analogues with Glu positioned on the borders between the hydrophobic and hydrophilic faces of the helical structures showed better performance than placing Glu within said faces.

Modular Redesign of a Cationic Lytic Peptide To Promote the Endosomal Escape of Biomacromolecules

AbstractEndocytosis is an important route for the intracellular delivery of biomacromolecules, wherein their inefficient endosomal escape into the cytosol remains a major barrier. Based on the understanding that endosomal membranes are negatively charged, we focused on the potential of cationic lytic peptides for developing endosomolysis agents to release such entrapped molecules. As such, a venom peptide, Mastoparan X, was employed and redesigned to serve as a delivery tool. Appending a tri‐glutamate unit to the N‐terminus attenuates the cytotoxicity of Mastoparan X by about 40 fold, while introduction of a NiII‐dipicolylamine complex enhances cellular uptake of the peptide by about 17 fold. Using the optimized peptide, various fluorescently labeled macromolecules were successfully delivered to the cytosol, enabling live‐cell imaging of acetylated histones.

Modular Redesign of a Cationic Lytic Peptide To Promote the Endosomal Escape of Biomacromolecules.

Endocytosis is an important route for the intracellular delivery of biomacromolecules, wherein their inefficient endosomal escape into the cytosol remains a major barrier. Based on the understanding that endosomal membranes are negatively charged, we focused on the potential of cationic lytic peptides for developing endosomolysis agents to release such entrapped molecules. As such, a venom peptide, Mastoparan X, was employed and redesigned to serve as a delivery tool. Appending a tri-glutamate unit to the N-terminus attenuates the cytotoxicity of Mastoparan X by about 40 fold, while introduction of a NiII -dipicolylamine complex enhances cellular uptake of the peptide by about 17 fold. Using the optimized peptide, various fluorescently labeled macromolecules were successfully delivered to the cytosol, enabling live-cell imaging of acetylated histones.

How Cancer Cells Become Resistant to Cationic Lytic Peptides: It’s the Sugar!

In this issue of Cell Chemical Biology, Ishikawa etal. (2017) demonstrate that the loss of cell-surface anionic saccharides can impart resistance toward anticancer peptides. This study provides the first insight into potential resistance mechanisms toward cationic lytic peptides and highlights the important, yet previously unappreciated, role cell-surface glycans can play in cellular resistance mechanisms.

Transgenic citrus expressing synthesized cecropin B genes in the phloem exhibits decreased susceptibility to Huanglongbing.

Expression of synthesized cecropin B genes in the citrus phloem, where Candidatus Liberibacter asiaticus resides, significantly decreased host susceptibility to Huanglongbing. Huanglongbing (HLB), associated with Candidatus Liberibacter asiaticus bacteria, is the most destructive disease of citrus worldwide. All of the commercial sweet orange cultivars lack resistance to this disease. The cationic lytic peptide cecropin B, isolated from the Chinese tasar moth (Antheraea pernyi), has been shown to effectively eliminate bacteria. In this study, we demonstrated that transgenic citrus (Citrus sinensis Osbeck) expressing the cecropin B gene specifically in the phloem had a decreased susceptibility to HLB. Three plant codon-optimized synthetic cecropin B genes, which were designed to secrete the cecropin B peptide into three specific sites, the extracellular space, the cytoplasm, and the endoplasmic reticulum, were constructed. Under the control of the selected phloem-specific promoter GRP1.8, these constructs were transferred into the citrus genome. All of the cecropin B genes were efficiently expressed in the phloem of transgenic plants. Over more than a year of evaluation, the transgenic lines exhibited reduced disease severity. Bacterial populations in transgenic lines were significantly lower than in the controls. Two lines, in which bacterial populations were significantly lower than in others, showed no visible symptoms. Thus, we demonstrated the potential application of the phloem-specific expression of an antimicrobial peptide gene to protect citrus plants from HLB.

An amphipathic lytic peptide for enhanced and selective delivery of ellipticine.

Cationic lytic peptides (CLPs) have shown promise in treating bacterial infection and cancer via selective disruption of bacterial or cancer cell membranes. In this work, we used a CLP, C6, as a nanocarrier for a hydrophobic anticancer agent, ellipticine (EPT). The size of the resulting C6-EPT complex was ∼190 nm. The in vitro studies using A549 lung cancer cells showed an enhanced anticancer activity of the C6-EPT complex compared to that of C6 or the EPT control. This enhancement was found to correlate with the membrane disruption induced by C6, which facilitated the entry of EPT into cells. More importantly, the C6-EPT complex showed a higher selectivity than that of C6 towards cancer cells upon comparison of their cytotoxicities against A549 cells and NIH-3T3 fibroblast cells. The enhanced therapeutic activity was also found in in vivo studies using an A549 tumor-bearing BALB/c nude mice model. This study provides a new CLP strategy for the development of multifunctional drug delivery systems.

KillerFLIP: a novel lytic peptide specifically inducing cancer cell death

One of the objectives in the development of effective cancer therapy is induction of tumor-selective cell death. Toward this end, we have identified a small peptide that, when introduced into cells via a TAT cell-delivery system, shows a remarkably potent cytoxicity in a variety of cancer cell lines and inhibits tumor growth in vivo, whereas sparing normal cells and tissues. This fusion peptide was named killerFLIP as its sequence was derived from the C-terminal domain of c-FLIP, an anti-apoptotic protein. Using structure activity analysis, we determined the minimal bioactive core of killerFLIP, namely killerFLIP-E. Structural analysis of cells using electron microscopy demonstrated that killerFLIP-E triggers cell death accompanied by rapid (within minutes) plasma membrane permeabilization. Studies of the structure of the active core of killerFLIP (-E) indicated that it possesses amphiphilic properties and self-assembles into micellar structures in aqueous solution. The biochemical properties of killerFLIP are comparable to those of cationic lytic peptides, which participate in defense against pathogens and have also demonstrated anticancer properties. We show that the pro-cell death effects of killerFLIP are independent of its sequence similarity with c-FLIPL as killerFLIP-induced cell death was largely apoptosis and necroptosis independent. A killerFLIP-E variant containing a scrambled c-FLIPL motif indeed induced similar cell death, suggesting the importance of the c-FLIPL residues but not of their sequence. Thus, we report the discovery of a promising synthetic peptide with novel anticancer activity in vitro and in vivo.

Expression of a Synthesized Gene Encoding Cationic Peptide Cecropin B in Transgenic Tomato Plants Protects against Bacterial Diseases

The cationic lytic peptide cecropin B (CB), isolated from the giant silk moth (Hyalophora cecropia), has been shown to effectively eliminate Gram-negative and some Gram-positive bacteria. In this study, the effects of chemically synthesized CB on plant pathogens were investigated. The S(50)s (the peptide concentrations causing 50% survival of a pathogenic bacterium) of CB against two major pathogens of the tomato, Ralstonia solanacearum and Xanthomonas campestris pv. vesicatoria, were 529.6 microg/ml and 0.29 microg/ml, respectively. The CB gene was then fused to the secretory signal peptide (sp) sequence from the barley alpha-amylase gene, and the new construct, pBI121-spCB, was used for the transformation of tomato plants. Integration of the CB gene into the tomato genome was confirmed by PCR, and its expression was confirmed by Western blot analyses. In vivo studies of the transgenic tomato plant demonstrated significant resistance to bacterial wilt and bacterial spot. The levels of CB expressed in transgenic tomato plants ( approximately 0.05 microg in 50 mg of leaves) were far lower than the S(50) determined in vitro. CB transgenic tomatoes could therefore be a new mode of bioprotection against these two plant diseases with significant agricultural applications.

Sensitivity of bacterial and fungal plant pathogens to the lytic peptides, MSI-99, magainin II, and cecropin B.

In vitro and leaf disk assays of bacterial and fungal plant pathogens were conducted using three cationic lytic peptides, MSI-99, magainin II (MII), and cecropin B (CB). Growth of bacterial organisms was retarded or completely inhibited by low concentrations of these lytic peptides. The peptides also significantly reduced germination of fungal spores and growth of mycelia; however, higher concentrations of peptides were needed to inhibit fungal growth compared with those needed to inhibit bacteria. The relative efficacy of the peptides depended on the microorganism tested, but CB was the most inhibitory to the majority of the bacteria and fungi assayed. MSI-99, a synthetic derivative of MII with increased positive charge, showed equal or two- to fivefold higher antibacterial activity compared to MII in the in vitro assays. MSI-99 was also superior to MII against the oomycete, Phytophthora infestans but was slightly inferior to MII in assays with the true fungi, Penicillium digitatum and Alternaria solani. In the leaf disk assays, pretreating spores of Alternaria solani and Phytophthora infestans with the peptides at concentrations as low as 10 microg per ml led to significant reductions in the size of early blight lesions and prevented development of any late blight lesions on tomato leaf disks. Our results from in vitro and leaf disk assays suggest that MSI-99 can be used as a transgene to generate tomato lines with enhanced resistance to bacterial and fungal diseases of this crop.

Effects of the anti-bacterial peptide cecropin B and its analogs, cecropins B-1 and B-2, on liposomes, bacteria, and cancer cells

Custom designed analogs of the natural anti-bacterial peptide cecropin B (CB) have been synthesized; cecropin B-1 (CB-1) was constructed by replacing the C-terminal segment (residues 26 to 35) with the N-terminal sequence of CB (positions 1 to 10 which include five lysine residues). The second analog, CB-2, is identical to CB-1 except for the insertion of a Gly-Pro residue pair between Pro-24 and Ala-25. These peptides were used to investigate their anti-liposome, anti-bacterial and anti-cancer activities. The strength of anti-liposome activity is reduced two- to three-fold when the analogs are used instead of natural CB based on DL 50 analysis. Similarly, the potency of these analogs on certain bacteria is about two- to four-fold lower than those of CB based on LC measurements. In contrast, on leukemia cancer cells, the potency of CB-1 and CB-2 is about two- to three-fold greater than that of natural CB based on IC 50 measurements. All CB, CB-1 and CB-2 peptides have comparable helix contents according to CD measurements. These results indicate that the designed cationic lytic peptides, having extra cationic residues, are less effective in breaking liposomes and killing bacteria but more effective in lysing cancer cells. The possible interpretations for these observations are discussed. © 1997 Elsevier Science B.V.