Molecular Insights into the Adsorption Mechanism of Human β-Defensin-3 on Bacterial Membranes

Human beta-defensin-3 (hBD3) is an endogenous antimicrobial peptide that exhibits broad-spectrum antibacterial activity without eukaryotic cytotoxicity. In this work, we carried out molecular dynamics (MD) simulations to explore its adsorption mechanism on, and the structural and thermodynamic contributions of individual residues to its antibacterial activity with both Gram-negative (GN) and Gram-positive (GP) bacterial membrane. Due to the strong electrostatic interaction of hBD3 with POPG lipids, which are more prevalent on the GP membrane, its adhesion to the GP membrane is stronger than to the GN membrane and stabilized more rapidly. On the surface of both bacterial membranes, the orientation of hBD3 is dominated by an electric dipole. We next analyzed the binding free energy decompositions of the hBD3-membrane complex using the molecular mechanics Poisson-Boltzmann surface area (MM-PBSA) method. The results of both the GN and the GP membrane simulations show that Arg17, Arg36, and Arg38 form both polar and nonpolar interactions and are potentially the key residues for hBD3 antibacterial activity. On the other hand, there was a significant difference in the energy contribution of Arg12 between the GP and GN membrane simulations, suggesting that Arg12 is a key factor in the toxicity of hBD3 to specifically GP bacteria. Our findings shed light on the antibacterial activity of hBD3 on bacterial membranes and yield insights useful for the design of potent antimicrobial peptides targeting multidrug resistant bacteria.