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Arginine‐rich cell‐penetrating peptides
Author(s) -
Schmidt Nathan,
Mishra Abhijit,
Lai Ghee Hwee,
Wong Gerard C.L.
Publication year - 2010
Publication title -
febs letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.593
H-Index - 257
eISSN - 1873-3468
pISSN - 0014-5793
DOI - 10.1016/j.febslet.2009.11.046
Subject(s) - internalization , arginine , intracellular , cell , cell penetrating peptide , microbiology and biotechnology , biophysics , membrane , cell membrane , chemistry , membrane curvature , peptide , biochemistry , biology , amino acid , lipid bilayer
Arginine‐rich cell‐penetrating peptides are short cationic peptides capable of traversing the plasma membranes of eukaryotic cells. While successful intracellular delivery of many biologically active macromolecules has been accomplished using these peptides, their mechanisms of cell entry are still under investigation. Recent dialogue has centered on a debate over the roles that direct translocation and endocytotic pathways play in internalization of cell‐penetrating peptides. In this paper, we review the evidence for the broad range of proposed mechanisms, and show that each distinct process requires negative Gaussian membrane curvature as a necessary condition. Generation of negative Gaussian curvature by cell‐penetrating peptides is directly related to their arginine content. We illustrate these concepts using HIV TAT as an example.