Homo- and heteromeric interaction strengths of the synergistic antimicrobial peptides PGLa and magainin 2 in membranes

PGLa and magainin 2 (MAG2) are amphiphilic α-helical frog peptides with synergistic antimicrobial activity. In vesicle leakage assays we observed the strongest synergy for equimolar mixtures of PGLa and MAG2. This result was consistent with solid-state 15N-NMR data on the helix alignment in model membranes. The Hill coefficients determined from the vesicle leakage data showed that the heterodimeric (PGLa-MAG2) interactions were stronger than the homodimeric (PGLa–PGLa and MAG2-MAG2) interactions. This result was also reflected in the free energy of dimerization determined from oriented circular dichroism and quantitative solid-state 19F-NMR analysis.