1.D.67 The Crown Ether-modified Helical Peptide Ion Channel (CEHP) Family 

Oriented circular dichroism was used to study the alignment of crown ether-modified peptides (Savoie et al. 2015). The influence of different N- and C-functionalities was assessed using variable peptide:lipid ratios from 1:20 to 1:200. Neither the functionalities nor the concentration had a major effect on orientation. The alignment of 21-mer peptides was examined with lipid membranes of different bilayer thicknesses with peptide:lipid molar ratios from 1:20 to 1:1000. For all conditions studied, the peptides were found to be predominantly incorporated as transmembrane helices into the membrane, especially at low peptide concentrations, but aggregated on the membrane surface at high peptide:lipid ratios. The structural information on the preferred trans-bilayer alignment of the crown ether functional groups explained their ion conductivities.  These systems may be useful for the development of membrane-active nanochemotherapeutics (Savoie et al. 2015).