Molecular modelling of membrane activity of amphotericin B, a polyene macrolide antifungal antibiotic.

ABSTRACT

Amphotericin B (AmB) is a well known polyene macrolide antibiotic used to treat systemic fungal infections. Despite its toxicity AmB is still regarded as a life-saving drug. The lack of adequate knowledge of the AmB mechanism of action is a serious obstacle to efficient development of new less toxic derivatives. Complementary to various experimental approaches, computational chemistry methods were used to study AmB mechanism of action. A programme lasting for a decade, that was run by our group covered studies of i) molecular properties of AmB and its membrane targets, ii) structure and properties of AmB membrane channels, and iii) interaction of AmB with the membrane.