For an antimicrobial peptide to be deemed therapeutically effective it must selectively disrupt bacterial membranes while leaving mammalian membranes intact. The chemical composition, and thus the physicochemical properties, of the lipid membranes of bacteria cells play a defining role in determining the membrane selectivity of antimicrobial peptides. It is therefore critically important to develop an understanding of how the physicochemical properties of antimicrobial peptides interact with the physicochemical properties of lipid membrane in order to maximize membrane selectivity and thus the therapeutic potential of antimicrobial peptides. To address this issue there are two questions that must be answered. One, what types of lipid models are most appropriate to use to mimic the various types of bacterial membranes? And secondly, what types of experiments should be conducted to provide the most useful information in order to design antimicrobial peptide with increased therapeutic potential. Bacterial membranes are known to contain a much higher concentration of anionic lipids than mammalian membranes. For example the Gram positive strains s.aureus, 57 % of its lipid membrane is composed of POPG, while for s.epidermidis, 90% of its lipid composition is POPG, and for B.subtilus, the percentage of POPG is reduced to 29%. While the membranes of the Gram negative strains S.typimurium, P.cepacia and E. coli contain only 33, 18 and 6 percent POPG respectively. The percentage of POPE found in the Gram positive bacteria B.subtilus and B.megaterium is 10 and 40% respectively. However, for the Gram negative strains S.typimurium, P.cepacia and E. coli the POPE composition increases to 60, 82 and 82 percent respectively. It is therefore critically important to employ the correct anionic lipid in the proper concentration when conducting investigation of the physicochemical interactions that occur between lipids and antimicrobial peptides.

Journal of Membrane Sciences and Technology is a world-wide peer-reviewed open-access journal which systematically documents several of key developments and filtration  taking place in the field of Membrane Technology all across the world.

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