Talk by Anton Polyansky “Peptides in membranes. Application of molecular modeling techniques”
Tuesday, 13.01.09. at 3pm in the large lecture hall at MedILS
dr. Anton Polyansky
M.M. Shemyakin & Yu.A. Ovchinnikov Institute of Bioorganic Chemistry,
Russian Academy of Sciences,
Laboratory of Biomolecular Modeling
Membrane-active peptides (MAPs) play a crucial role in numerous cell processes, such as fusion, transport of therapeutic compounds, disturbance of integrity of membranes, and others. Many of them act as highly specific and efficient drugs and, therefore, attract growing interest for biomedical applications. It should be noted that destabilization of a lipid bilayer induced by a MAPs insertion may be considered as a “side effect” of the peptide’s attempts to achieve the most favorable state in the membrane. The role of different factors in such a process is not yet fully understood. It is known, though, that certain “tuning” of MAP structure may be accompanied by intermolecular side-chain interactions and/or specific contacts with lipids. Another important issue is the mosaic structure of lipid membranes determining a heterogeneous organization of their surface. Combination of these factors results in a complicated behavior of MAPs on the water-lipid interface – the fact that is often observed in experiments. Because of experimental difficulties with characterization of MAPs spatial structure and their mode of membrane binding, essential attention is given now to molecular modeling techniques. In present talk I consider how combination of different modeling approaches can be used to scrutinize the interaction of cell-penetrating and antimicrobial peptides with different membrane models. Such information might be important to understand mechanisms of MAPs action and further rational design of novel biological active compounds.