Researchers looked at how a human antimicrobial peptide called LL‑37 interacts with thin layers that mimic the membranes of a bacteria called Legionella. They found that when the bacteria were grown with choline, the membrane lipids behaved differently and were more attractive to each other, while LL‑37 made the membrane layers less stable. The peptide’s effect changed depending on whether choline was present during bacterial growth.

The presented studies were aimed at determining the interactions in model membranes (Langmuir monolayers) created of phospholipids (PL) isolated from <i>Legionella gormanii</i> bacteria cultured with (PL + choline) or without (PL - choline) choline and to describe the impact of an antimicrobial peptide, human cathelicidin LL-37, on PL's monolayer behavior. The addition of choline to the growth medium influenced the mutual proportions of phospholipids extracted from <i>L. gormanii</i>. Four classes of phospholipids-phosphatidylcholine (PC), phosphatidylethanolamine (PE), phosphatidylglycerol (PG), cardiolipin (CL), and their mixtures-were used to register compression isotherms with or without the LL-37 peptide in the subphase. Based on them the excess area (Ae), excess (&#x394;Ge), and total (&#x394;Gm) Gibbs energy of mixing were determined. The thermodynamic analyses revealed that the PL - choline monolayer showed greater repulsive forces between molecules in comparison to the ideal system, while the PL + choline monolayer was characterized by greater attraction. The LL-37 peptide affected the strength of interactions between phospholipids' molecules and reduced the monolayers stability. Accordingly, the changes in interactions in the model membranes allowed us to determine the difference in their susceptibility to the LL-37 peptide depending on the choline supplementation of bacterial culture.