1.D.42 The Phe-Arg Tripeptide-Pillar[5]Arene Channel (TPPA-C) Family 

Three artificial (synthetic) transmembrane channel molecules have been designed and synthesized by attaching positively charged Phe/Arg-incorporated tripeptide chains to pillar[5]arene (Si et al. 2014). Fluorescent and patch-clamp experiments revealed that voltage can drive the molecules to insert into and leave from a lipid bilayer and thus switch the transport of K⁺ ions on and off. One of the molecules was found to display antimicrobial activity toward Bacillus subtilis with a half maximal inhibitory concentration (IC50) of 10 muM which is comparable to that of the natural channel-forming peptide alamethicin (Si et al. 2014).