ArticleScientific reports2019
Nano-viscosimetry analysis of the membrane disrupting action of the bee venom peptide melittin.
Article in Scientific reports, 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 16 papers.
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Who cites it
16 citing papers in PubMed, 32 citations in OpenAlex.
- In Vitro Ocular Cytotoxicity of BEE Venom in ARPE-19, NTM5, HCET, and HCEC-12 Cell Lines.Cell biochemistry and biophysics · 2026Article
- Bacterial cell fate under stress: lipid remodeling and antimicrobial peptide attack.npj antimicrobials and resistance · 2026Article
- Review
- Bee venom and thymoquinone combination inhibits cancer cells by inducing cell cycle arrest and apoptosis.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- CombattingAntibiotics (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Review
- Granzyme B and melittin in cancer immunotherapy: molecular mechanisms and therapeutic perspectives in head and neck cancers.Frontiers in immunology · 2025Review
- A high-throughput gut-on-chip platform to study the epithelial responses to enterotoxins.Scientific reports · 2024Article
- The current landscape of the antimicrobial peptide melittin and its therapeutic potential.Frontiers in immunology · 2024Review
- A promising antibiotic candidate, brevinin-1 analogue 5R, against drug-resistant bacteria, with insights into its membrane-targeting mechanism.Computational and structural biotechnology journal · 2023Article
- Enhanced Therapeutic Effect of Optimized Melittin-dKLA, a Peptide Agent Targeting M2-like Tumor-Associated Macrophages in Triple-Negative Breast Cancer.International journal of molecular sciences · 2022Article
- Matching amino acids membrane preference profile to improve activity of antimicrobial peptides.Communications biology · 2022Article
- Advancements in antimicrobial nanoscale materials and self-assembling systems.Chemical Society reviews · 2022Review
- Inhibitory activities of propolis, nisin, melittin and essential oil compounds onThe journal of venomous animals and toxins including tropical diseases · 2022Article
- Latest developments on the mechanism of action of membrane disrupting peptides.Biophysics reports · 2021Article
- Hybrid bilayer membranes on metallurgical polished aluminum.Scientific reports · 2021Article
- Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
2 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Melittin is one of the most studied α-helical cationic membrane disrupting peptides. It is the main component of bee venom, however it is considered an antimicrobial peptide for its ability to kill bacteria. Melittin is believed to act by opening large toroidal pores in the plasma membrane of the targeted cells/bacteria, although this is questioned by some authors. Little is known, however, about the molecular mechanism leading to this activity. In this study the mechanism of action of melittin was studied by dye leakage and quartz crystal microbalance fingerprinting analysis in biomimetic model membranes. The results revealed the existence of multiple stages in the membrane disrupting action with characteristic differences between different membrane types. In bacterial-mimetic (charged) lipid mixtures the viscoelastic fingerprints suggest a surface-acting mechanism, whereas in mammalian-mimetic (neutral) membranes melittin appears to penetrate the bilayer already at low concentrations. In domain-forming mixed membranes melittin shows a preference for the domain containing predominantly zwitterionic lipids. The results confirm membrane poration but are inconsistent with the insertion-to-toroidal pore pathway. Therefore hypotheses of the two membrane disrupting pathways were developed, describing the membrane disruption as either surface tension modulation leading to toroidal pore formation, or linear aggregation leading to fissure formation in the membrane.
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