Structural factors governing binding of curvature-sensing peptides to bacterial extracellular vesicles covered with hydrophilic polysaccharide chains

Extracellular vesicles (EVs) have attracted an attention as important targets in the fields of biology and medical science because they contain physiologically active molecules. Curvature-sensing peptides are currently used as novel tools for marker-independent EV detection techniques. A structure-activity correlation study demonstrated that the α-helicity of the peptides is prominently involved in peptide binding to vesicles. However, whether a flexible structure changing from a random coil to an α-helix upon binding to vesicles or a restricted α-helical structure is an important factor in the detection of biogenic vesicles is still unclear. To address this issue, we compared the binding affinities of stapled and unstapled peptides for bacterial EVs with different surface polysaccharide chains. We found that unstapled peptides showed similar binding affinities for bacterial EVs regardless of surface polysaccharide chains, whereas stapled peptides showed substantially decreased binding affinities for bacterial EVs covered with capsular polysaccharides. This is probably because curvature-sensing peptides must pass through the layer of hydrophilic polysaccharide chains prior to binding to the hydrophobic membrane surface. While stapled peptides with restricted structures cannot easily pass through the layer of polysaccharide chains, unstapled peptides with flexible structures can easily approach the membrane surface. Therefore, we concluded that the structural flexibility of curvature-sensing peptides is a key factor for governing the highly sensitive detection of bacterial EVs. [Display omitted] •Curvature-sensing peptides are a novel tool for EV detection techniques.•The governing factors of peptides for detecting bacterial EVs remain unknown.•The structural flexibility of peptides is a key factor for bacterial EV detection.