Rationally designed foldameric adjuvants enhance antibiotic efficacy via promoting membrane hyperpolarization.

The negative membrane potential of bacterial cells influences crucial cellular processes. Inspired by the molecular scaffold of the antimicrobial peptide PGLa, we have developed antimicrobial foldamers with a computer-guided design strategy. The novel PGLa analogues induce sustained membrane hyperpolarization. When co-administered as an adjuvant, the resulting compounds - PGLb1 and PGLb2 - have substantially reduced the level of antibiotic resistance of multi-drug resistant Escherichia coli, Klebsiella pneumoniae and Shigella flexneri clinical isolates. The observed antibiotic potentiation was mediated by hyperpolarization of the bacterial membrane caused by the alteration of cellular ion transport. Specifically, PGLb1 and PGLb2 are selective ionophores that enhance the Goldman-Hodgkin-Katz potential across the bacterial membrane. These findings indicate that manipulating bacterial membrane electrophysiology could be a valuable tool to overcome antimicrobial resistance.

Molecular Dynamics and Metadynamics Insights of 1,4-Dioxane-Induced Structural Changes of Biomembrane Models.

1,4-Dioxane is a cytotoxic B2-type human carcinogen, a serious water pollutant produced solely by industrial activity. The effect of 1,4-dioxane on phospholipid membrane models composed of dipalmitoyl-phosphatidylcholine (DPPC) and its branched isomer (isodipalmitoyl-phosphatidylcholine, IPPC) was investigated using MD simulations. Clear and polluted membranes were compared by membrane parameters such as area per lipid (APL), volume per lipid (VPL), compressibility modulus, membrane thickness, and orderliness of lipid tails. While neat systems significantly differ from each other, the presence of the pollutant has the same effect on both types of lipid membranes. High density of dioxane appears in the vicinity of ester groups, which pushes away lipid headgroups from each other, leading to an overall change in lipid structure: APL and VPL grows, while the orderliness of lipid tails, membrane thickness, and compressibility modulus decrease. Orientational preferences of water and dioxane molecules were also investigated and different membrane regions have been specified according to the stance of water molecules. Free-energy profile for 1,4-dioxane penetration mechanism into DPPC membranes was carried out using metadynamics for two different concentrations of the pollutant (c1 = 7.51 g/dm3, c2 = 75.10 g/dm3), which showed that the higher the concentration is, the lower the free energy of penetration gets. Only a small free-energy barrier was found in the headgroup region and accumulation of dioxane is thermodynamically unfavored in the middle of the bilayer. The penetration mechanism has been described in detail based on the orientational preference of 1,4-dioxane molecules and the free-energy profiles.

Predicting order and disorder for ß-peptide foldamers in water.

Following a quantitative validation approach, we tested the AMBER ff03 and GAFF force fields with the TIP3P explicit water model in molecular dynamic simulations of ß-peptide foldamers. The test sequences were selected to represent a wide range of folding behavior in water: compact helix, strand mimetic geometry, and the state of disorder. The combination AMBER ff03-TIP3P successfully predicted the experimentally observed conformational properties and reproduced the NOE distances and backbone (3)J coupling data at a good level. GAFF was unable to produce folded structures correctly due to its biased torsion potentials. We can recommend AMBER ff03-TIP3P for simulations involving ß-peptide sequences in aqueous media including ordered and disordered structures.