Do cell penetrating peptides alter the fluidity or the mechanical properties of lipid membranes? A brief beginning of mechanical and rheological properties study

MATIAS VIA; MARIO G DEL POPOLO; GALASSI, VANESA; JOAUIN PUCHOL; NATALIA WILKE

Buenos Aires

Simposio; YIB Talks; 2020

Young Initiative on Biophysics

Cell Penetrating Peptides (CPPs) are known to be good carriers for therapeutic delivery, as they can go across plasma membranes efficiently. CPPs are found in different living organisms, as part of macromolecular structures or as simple polypeptides. However, in all cases  CPPs fulfill the common goal of creating a favorable environment to overcome the limited permeability of membranes. The first stage in this process involves CPPs adsorption at the interface and possibly the modulation of the bilayer mechanical and rheological properties. The aim of the present work is to describe, from a physico-chemical point of view, the molecular basis of the interaction between nona-arginine (R9) and model membranes made of negatively charged phospholipids. Using the MARTINI coarse grained force field and molecular dynamics simulations we resort to a computational approach, based on the theory of capillary waves and non-equilibrium simulations, to characterize the influence of the CPPs adsorption on the fluidity and the mechanical properties of the membrane.