Roles of Arginine and Lysine Residues in the Translocation of a Cell-Penetrating Peptide from 13C 31P and 19F Solid-State NMR

摘要

Cell-penetrating peptides (CPPs) are small cationic peptides that cross the cell membrane while carrying macromolecular cargoes. We use solid-state NMR to investigate the structure and lipid interaction of two cationic residues, Arg10 and Lys13, in the CPP penetratin. ¹³C chemical shifts indicate that Arg10 adopts a rigid β-strand conformation in the liquid-crystalline state of anionic lipid membranes. This behavior contrasts with all other residues observed so far in this peptide, which adopt a dynamic β-turn conformation with coil-like chemical shifts at physiological temperature. Low-temperature ¹³C-³¹P distances between the peptide and the lipid phosphates indicate that both the Arg10 guanidinium Cζ and the Lys13 Cε lie in close proximity to the lipid ³¹P (4.0 - 4.2 Å), proving the existence of charge-charge interaction for both Arg10 and Lys13 in the gel-phase membrane. However, since lysine substitution in CPPs are known to reduce their translocation ability, we propose that low temperature stabilizes both lysine and arginine interactions with the phosphates, whereas at high temperature the lysine-phosphate interaction is much weaker than the arginine-phosphate interaction. This is supported by the unusually high rigidity of the Arg10 sidechain and its β-strand conformation at high temperature. The latter is proposed to be important for ion pair formation by allowing close approach of the lipid headgroups to guanidinium sidechains. ¹⁹F and ¹³C spin diffusion experiments indicate that penetratin is oligomerized into β-sheets in gel-phase membranes. These solid-state NMR data indicate that guanidinium-phosphate interactions exist in penetratin, and guanidinium groups play a stronger structural role than ammonium groups in the lipid-assisted translocation of CPPs across liquid-crystalline cell membranes.