Mercury-Supported Biomimetic Membranes for the Investigation of Antimicrobial Peptides
1
Department of Chemistry "Ugo Schiff", Florence University, Via della Lastruccia 3, Sesto Fiorentino (Firenze) 50019, Italy
2
Retired professor from Florence University, Firenze 50121, Italy
*
Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Pharmaceuticals 2014, 7(2), 136-168; https://doi.org/10.3390/ph7020136
Received: 16 December 2013 / Accepted: 17 January 2014 / Published: 23 January 2014
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Identification and Characterization of Antimicrobial Peptides with Therapeutic Potential)
Tethered bilayer lipid membranes (tBLMs) consist of a lipid bilayer interposed between an aqueous solution and a hydrophilic “spacer” anchored to a gold or mercury electrode. There is great potential for application of these biomimetic membranes for the elucidation of structure-function relationships of membrane peptides and proteins. A drawback in the use of mercury-supported tBLMs with respect to gold-supported ones is represented by the difficulty in applying surface sensitive, spectroscopic and scanning probe microscopic techniques to gather information on the architecture of these biomimetic membranes. Nonetheless, mercury-supported tBLMs are definitely superior to gold-supported biomimetic membranes for the investigation of the function of membrane peptides and proteins, thanks to a fluidity and lipid lateral mobility comparable with those of bilayer lipid membranes interposed between two aqueous phases (BLMs), but with a much higher robustness and resistance to electric fields. The different features of mercury-supported tBLMs reconstituted with functionally active membrane proteins and peptides of bacteriological or pharmacological interest may be disclosed by a judicious choice of the most appropriate electrochemical techniques. We will describe the way in which electrochemical impedance spectroscopy, potential-step chronocoulometry, cyclic voltammetry and phase-sensitive AC voltammetry are conveniently employed to investigate the structure of mercury-supported tBLMs and the mode of interaction of antimicrobial peptides reconstituted into them.
View Full-Text
Keywords:
tethered bilayer lipid membranes; self-assembled monolayers; electrochemical impedance spectroscopy; potential-step chronocoulometry; cyclic voltammetry
▼
Show Figures
This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License
MDPI and ACS Style
Becucci, L.; Guidelli, R. Mercury-Supported Biomimetic Membranes for the Investigation of Antimicrobial Peptides. Pharmaceuticals 2014, 7, 136-168.
Show more citation formats