Abstract
9Pbw2 is a 9-mer analog of protaetiamycine derived from the larvae of the beetle Protaetia brevitarsis. Previously, we designed four 9-mer peptide analogues to optimize the balance between the hydrophobicity and cationicity of the peptides and to increase bacterial cell selectivity. Among them, 9Pbw2 has high antibacterial activity without cytotoxicity. The results obtained in previous study suggest that the bactericidal action of 9Pbw2 may be attributed to the inhibition of the functions of intracellular components after penetration of the bacterial cell membrane. In order to understand structure-activity relationships, we determined the three-dimensional structure of 9Pbw2 in 200 mM DPC micelle by NMR spectroscopy. 9Pbw2 has one hydrophobic turn helix from $Trp^3$ to $Arg^8$ and positively charged residues at the N- and C-terminus. This result suggested that positively charged residues from position at the C-terminus in 9Pbw2 may be important for the primary binding to the negatively charged phospholipid head groups in bacterial cell membranes and hydrophobic residues in the middle portion face toward the acyl chains of the hydrophobic lipid in the bacterial cell membrane.
