Binding of antibacterial magainin peptides to electrically neutral membranes: thermodynamics and structure

Magainins are positively charged amphiphatic peptides which permeabilize cell membranes and exhibit antimicrobial activity. Research was conducted which showed that binding of magainins to neutral membranes, a reaction which is difficult to evaluate by spectroscopy, can be followed with high precision using isothermal titration calorimetry. The binding mechanism can be described by a surface partition equilibrium after correcting for electrostatic repulsion by means of the Gouy-Chapman theory.