Biological activities of synthetic grammistins and analogous peptides

Grammistins, peptide toxins isolated from the skin secretions of two species of soapfishes Grammistes sexlineatus and Pogonoperca punctata, are new members of the family of linear membrane-lytic antibacterial peptides characterized by the abundance of amphiphilic α-helices. As the first step toward future use of grammistins to examine the mode of membrane lysis and design new antibiotics, C-terminally free and amidated forms were chemically synthesized for each of five grammistins (Gs 1, Gs 2, Pp 1, Pp 2b and Pp 3), and evaluated for hemolytic and antibacterial activities. No difference in biological activities was observed between C-terminally free and amidated forms of Gs 1, while the C-terminally amidated forms of the other grammistins exhibited much higher activities than the C-terminally free forms. Comparison with the biological activities of natural grammistins, together with our preliminary cloning experiments, showed that natural grammistins, except for Gs 1, are C-terminally amidated. As for Pp 1, six analogous peptides were further synthesized. Determination of their biological activities revealed that the amphiphilic α-helical structure and positive charge are important for the hemolytic and antibacterial activities, respectively, of Pp 1.