Tuning the activity of a short arg-trp antimicrobial Peptide by lipidation of a C- or N-terminal lysine side-chain

The attachment of lipids to C- or N-terminally positioned lysine side-chain amino groups increases the activity of a short synthetic (Arg-Trp)3 antimicrobial peptide significantly, making these peptides even active against pathogenic Gram-negative bacteria. Thus, a peptide with strong activity against S. aureus (1.1-2 μM) and good activity against A. baumannii and P. aeruginosa (9-18 μM) was identified. The most promising peptide causes 50% hemolysis at 285 μM and shows some selectivity against human cancer cell lines. Interestingly, the increased activity of ferrocenoylated peptides is mostly due to the lipophilicity of the organometallic fragment.