Despite ongoing research on antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) and cell-penetrating peptides (CPPs), their precise translocation mechanism remains elusive. This includes Buforin 2 (BF2), a well-known AMP, for which spontaneous translocation across the membrane has been proposed but a high barrier has been calculated. Here, we used computer simulations to investigate the effect of a nonequilibrium situation where the peptides are adsorbed on one side of the lipid bilayer, mimicking experimental conditions. We demonstrated that the asymmetric membrane adsorption of BF2 enhances its translocation across the lipid bilayer by lowering the energy barrier by tens of kJ mol-1. We showed that asymmetric membrane adsorption also reduced the free energy barrier of lipid flip-flop but remained unlikely even at BF2 surface saturation. These results provide insight into the driving forces behind membrane translocation of cell-penetrating peptides in nonequilibrium conditions, mimicking experiments.

• MeSH
• adsorpce MeSH
• antimikrobiální peptidy chemie   farmakologie   MeSH
• buněčná membrána metabolismus   chemie   MeSH
• kationické antimikrobiální peptidy chemie   farmakologie   metabolismus   MeSH
• lipidové dvojvrstvy * chemie   metabolismus   MeSH
• penetrační peptidy chemie   metabolismus   MeSH
• proteiny MeSH
• simulace molekulární dynamiky MeSH
• termodynamika MeSH
• terpeny chemie   farmakologie   MeSH
• Publikační typ
• časopisecké články MeSH
• Názvy látek
• antimikrobiální peptidy MeSH
• buforin II MeSH Prohlížeč
• kationické antimikrobiální peptidy MeSH
• lipidové dvojvrstvy * MeSH
• penetrační peptidy MeSH
• proteiny MeSH
• terpeny MeSH