FIG. 7.

Membrane permeabilization of synthetic peptides encompassing the putative amphipathic helices. Three N terminal peptides were used for LDH release assay: (i) MGKIIKSLSRFGKKVGNALT (aa 1 to 20), (ii) NTAKKIYSTIGKAAERFAES (aa 22 to 41), and (iii) GAATIDGLVQGSVHSIITGE (aa 44 to 53). The peptides were dissolved in DMSO at a concentration of 10 μg/ml, and subjected to LDH release assay as described for Fig. 4. The cell cytotoxicity assay was conducted by adding various concentrations of each peptide to the 10⁴ L929 cells. Readings (OD₄₉₂) from duplicate wells of each concentration were used to calculate the percent cytotoxicity. The percent cytotoxicity was calculated according to a formula as described in Materials and Methods. Four different experiments were performed, any individual of which varied no more than 5%.