Effect of disulphide bond position on salt resistance and LPS-neutralizing activity of α-helical homo-dimeric model antimicrobial peptides

To investigate the effects of disulphide bond position on the salt resistance and lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-neutralizing activity of ${\alpha}$-helical homo-dimeric antimicrobial peptides (AMPs), we synthesized an ${\alpha}$-helical model peptide ($K_6L_4W_1$) and its homo-dimeric peptides (di-$K_6L_4W_1$-N, di-$K_6L_4W_1$-M, and di-$K_6L_4W_1$-C) with a disulphide bond at the N-terminus, the central position, and the C-terminus of the molecules, respectively. Unlike $K_6L_4W_1$ and di-$K_6L_4W_1$-M, the antimicrobial activity of di-$K_6L_4W_1$-N and di-$K_6L_4W_1$-C was unaffected by 150 mM NaCl. Both di-$K_6L_4W_1$-N and di-$K_6L_4W_1$-C caused much greater inhibitory effects on nitric oxide (NO) release in LPS-induced mouse macrophage RAW 264.7 cells, compared to di-$K_6L_4W_1$-M. Taken together, our results indicate that the presence of a disulphide bond at the N- or C-terminus of the molecule, rather than at the central position, is more effective when designing salt-resistant ${\alpha}$-helical homo-dimeric AMPs with potent antimicrobial and LPS-neutralizing activities.