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Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy, March 2000, p. 602-607, Vol. 44, No. 3
0066-4804/00/$04.00+0
Copyright © 2000, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.

Antibacterial and Antimembrane Activities of Cecropin A in Escherichia coli

Loraine Silvestro,1 Jeffrey N. Weiser,2 and Paul H. Axelsen1,3,*

Department of Pharmacology1 and Infectious Disease Section, Department of Medicine, The Johnson Foundation for Molecular Biophysics,3 University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, and the Departments of Pediatrics and Microbiology, Children's Hospital of Philadelphia,2 Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19104-6084

Received 16 July 1999/Returned for modification 31 October 1999/Accepted 3 December 1999

The ability of cecropin A to permeabilize and depolarize the membranes of Escherichia coli ML-35p bacteria has been compared to its bactericidal activity in an extension of earlier studies performed on synthetic lipid vesicle membranes (L. Silvestro, K. Gupta, J. H. Weiser, and P. H. Axelsen, Biochemistry 36:11452-11460, 1997). Our results indicate that differences in the concentration dependences of membrane permeabilization and depolarization seen in synthetic vesicles are not manifested in whole bacteria. The concentration dependences of both phenomena roughly correlate with bactericidal activity, suggesting that the bactericidal mechanism of cecropin A is related to membrane permeabilization.

* Corresponding author. Mailing address: Department of Pharmacology, University of Pennsylvania, 3620 Hamilton Walk, Philadelphia, PA 19104-6084. Phone: (215) 898-9238. Fax: (215) 573-2236. E-mail: axe{at}pharm.med.upenn.edu.

Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy, March 2000, p. 602-607, Vol. 44, No. 3
0066-4804/00/$04.00+0
Copyright © 2000, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.


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