Abstract
Animals and plants defend themselves against pathogenic micro-organisms by the rapid mobilization of polycationic helical amphipathic peptides. Interactions with membranes induce optimal orientation and mutual structural changes, allowing for example to form transbilayer ion channels or pores whose properties are compared in this review. Physicochemical studies of peptide-lipid interactions provide attractive approaches for drug design.
Keywords: channel-forming peptides, poe-forming peptides, defense peptide, amphipathicity, lipid composition, cellular targets, planar lipid bilayers