The inhibition of fibril formation of amyloid beta proteins (A beta) would be attractive therapeutic targets for the treatment of Alzheimer's disease (AD). Dopamine (DA) and other catechol derivatives were used as inhibitory factors for A beta fibril formation. The fibril formation of A beta was monitored by Thioflavin T fluorescence, a transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and a total interna...

Molecular beam electric deflection measurements have been used to determine electric susceptibilities for small unsolvated alanine-based peptides. The electric susceptibility provides information about the charge distribution within the peptide and can be used to distinguish between zwitterionic and canonical forms. Measured electric susceptibilities for WAn peptides (n = 1-5) are similar to th...

Deciphering the links between amino acid sequence and amyloid fibril formation is key for understanding protein misfolding diseases. Here we use Monte Carlo simulations to study the aggregation of short peptides in a coarse-grained model with hydrophobic-polar (HP) amino acid sequences and correlated side chain orientations for hydrophobic contacts. A significant heterogeneity is observed in th...

The C-6 substituted tryptophan di- and tri-peptides and , representing the tryptophan core of stephanotic acid, have been synthesized, the key steps being the formation of the phosphono-di- and tri-peptides and by a highly chemoselective rhodium(II) catalyzed carbene N-H insertion reaction, their subsequent Horner-Wadsworth-Emmons reactions with N-Boc-6-bromoindole-3-carboxaldehyde, and the rho...

We explore the effects of the peripheral and transmembrane antimicrobial peptides on the lipid bilayer membrane by using the coarse grained Dissipative Particle Dynamics simulations. We study peptide/lipid membrane complexes by considering peptides with various structure, hydrophobicity and peptide/lipid interaction strength. The role of lipid/water interaction is also discussed. We discuss a r...

We suggest a physical mechanism by which antimicrobial peptides spontaneously induce stable pores in membranes. Peptide binding to a lipid bilayer causes an internal stress, or internal membrane tension, that can be sufficiently strong to create pores. Like detergents, peptides have a high affinity for the rim of the pore. Binding to the rims reduces the line tension and decreases the number of...

Antimicrobial peptides are known to form pores in cell membranes. We study this process in model bilayers of various lipid compositions. We use two of the best-studied peptides, alamethicin and melittin, to represent peptides making two types of pores, that is, barrel-stave pores and toroidal pores. In both cases, the key control variable is the concentration of the bound peptides in the lipid ...

We investigated the mechanisms of two tryptophan-rich antibacterial peptides (KT2 and RT2) obtained in a previous optimization screen for increased killing of both Gram-negative and Gram-positive bacteria pathogens. At their minimal inhibitory concentrations (MICs), these peptides completely killed cells of multidrug-resistant, enterohemorrhagic pathogen Escherichia coli O157:H7 within 1-5 min....

a new biological active hexapeptide of c-terminal of nocistatin, contains glu-gln-lys-gln-leu-gln sequence was synthesized according to solid phase peptide synthesis on the surface of 2-chloro tritylchloride resin and using fmoc-protected amino acids in the presence of tbtu (o-(benzotriazol-1-yl)-n,n,n',n'-tetramethyl uranium tetrafluoroborate) as a coupling reagent. then, amidation o...