Chemistry Letters, Vol.41, No.10, 1374-1376, 2012
Physicochemical Mechanism for the Lipid Membrane Binding of Polyarginine: The Favorable Enthalpy Change with Structural Transition from Random Coil to alpha-Helix
Lipid membrane binding of polyarginine with different chain length was evaluated. From our findings, it is suggested that the secondary structural change of polyarginine from random coil to a-helix upon lipid binding facilitates insertion into lipid membrane of the polypeptide, leading to the enhanced membrane penetration of polyarginine.