HIV TAT Forms Pores in Membranes by Inducing Saddle‐Splay Curvature: Potential Role of Bidentate Hydrogen Bonding

Abstract

Pore performance: The TAT protein of HIV can cross cell membranes with remarkable efficiency. By applying ideas from coordination chemistry, soft-condensed-matter physics, and differential geometry, it has been shown that TAT induces saddle-splay curvature in cell membranes, a process that is required for pore formation (see picture of two nonintersecting networks of pores). The results have potential implications for the design of cell-penetrating peptides.