Kamal El Battioui, Sohini Chakraborty, András Wacha, Dániel Molnár, Mayra Quemé-Peña, Imola Cs Szigyártó, Csenge Lilla Szabó, Andrea Bodor, Kata Horváti, Gergő Gyulai, Szilvia Bősze, Judith Mihály, Bálint Jezsó, Loránd Románszki, Judit Tóth, Zoltán Varga, István Mándity, Tünde Juhász, Tamás Beke-Somfai
Developing unique mechanisms of action are essential to combat the growing issue of antimicrobial resistance. Supramolecular assemblies combining the improved biostability of non-natural compounds with the complex membrane-attacking mechanisms of natural peptides are promising alternatives to conventional antibiotics. However, for such compounds the direct visual insight on antibacterial action is still lacking. Here we employ a design strategy focusing on an inducible assembly mechanism and utilized electron microscopy (EM) to follow the formation of supramolecular structures of lysine-rich heterochiral β3 -peptides, termed lamellin-2K and lamellin-3K, triggered by bacterial cell surface lipopolysaccharides...
April 23, 2024: Nature Communications