The ability of cell-penetrating peptides (CPPs) to cross cell membranes has found numerous applications in the delivery of bioactive compounds to the cytosol of living cells. Their internalization mechanisms have been questioned many times, and after 20 years of intense debate, it is now widely accepted that both energy-dependent and energy-independent mechanisms account for their penetration properties. However, the energy-independent mechanisms, named "direct translocation", occurring without the requirement of the cell internalization machinery, remain to be fully rationalized at the molecular level. Using artificial membrane bilayers, recent progress has been made toward the comprehension of the direct translocation event. This review summarizes our current understanding of the translocation process, starting from the adsorption of the CPP on the membrane to the membrane crossing itself. We describe the different key steps occurring before direct translocation, because each of them can promote and/or hamper translocation of the CPP through the membrane. We then dissect the modification to the membranes induced by the presence of the CPPs. Finally, we focus on the latest studies describing the direct translocation mechanisms. These results provide an important framework within which to design new CPPs and to rationalize an eventual selectivity of CPPs in their penetration ability.

In this study, the direct translocation of cell-penetrating peptides (CPPs) into large unilamellar vesicles (LUVs) was shown to be rapid for all the most commonly used CPPs. This translocation led within a few minutes to intravesicular accumulation up to 0.5 mM, with no need for a transbilayer potential. The accumulation of CPPs inside LUVs was found to depend on CPP sequence, CPP extravesicular concentration and phospholipid (PL) composition, either in binary or ternary mixtures of PLs. More interestingly, the role of anionic phospholipid flip-flopping in the translocation process was ascertained. CPPs enhanced the flipping of PLs, and the intravesicular CPP accumulation directly correlated with the amount of anionic PLs that had been transferred from the external to the internal leaflet of the LUV bilayer, thus demonstrating the transport of peptide/lipid complexes as inverted micelles.

Escherichia coli swarmer cells coordinate their movement when confined in thin layers of fluid on agar surfaces. The motion and dynamics of cells, pairs of cells, and packs of cells can be recapitulated and studied in polymer microfluidic systems that are designed to constrain swarmer cell movement in thin layers of fluid between no-slip surfaces. The motion of elongated, smooth swimming E. coli cells in these environments reproduces the behavior of packs of cells observed at the leading edge of swarming communities and demonstrates the delicate balance between the physical dimensions of fluids and bacterial cell behavior.

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Monotopic membrane proteins integrate into the lipid bilayer via reentrant hydrophobic domains that enter and exit on a single face of the membrane. Whereas many membrane-spanning proteins have been structurally characterized and transmembrane topologies can be predicted computationally, relatively little is known about the determinants of membrane topology in monotopic proteins. Recently, we reported the X-ray structure determination of PglC, a full-length monotopic membrane protein with phosphoglycosyl transferase (PGT) activity. The definition of this unique structure has prompted in vivo, biochemical, and computational analyses to understand and define key motifs that contribute to the membrane topology and to provide insight into the dynamics of the enzyme in a lipid bilayer environment. Using the new information gained from studies on the PGT superfamily we demonstrate that two motifs exemplify principles of topology determination that can be applied to the identification of reentrant domains among diverse monotopic proteins of interest.

Confocal laser scanning microscopy (CLSM) is the most popular technique for mapping the subcellular distribution of a fluorescent molecule and is widely used to investigate the penetration properties of exogenous macromolecules, such as cell-penetrating peptides (CPPs), within cells. Despite the membrane-association propensity of all these CPPs, the signal of the fluorescently labeled CPPs did not colocalize with the plasma membrane. We studied the origin of this fluorescence extinction and the overall consequence on the interpretation of intracellular localizations from CLSM pictures. We demonstrated that this discrepancy originated from fluorescence self-quenching. The fluorescence was unveiled by a “dilution” protocol, i.e. by varying the ratio fluorescent/non-fluorescent CPP. This strategy allowed us to rank with confidence the subcellular distribution of several CPPs, contributing to the elucidation of the penetration mechanism. More generally, this study proposes a broadly applicable and reliable method to study the subcellular distribution of any fluorescently labeled molecules.

The internalization of cell-penetrating peptides (CPPs) into liposomes (large unilamellar vesicles, LUVs) was studied with a rapid and robust procedure based on the quenching of a small fluorescent probe, 7-nitrobenz-2-oxa-1,3-diazole (NBD). Quenching can be achieved by reduction with dithionite or by pH jump. LUVs with different compositions of phospholipids (PLs) were used to screen the efficacy of different CPPs. In order to "validate" the composition of the membrane models, a control cationic peptide, which does not enter eukaryotic cells, was included in the study. It was found that pure DOPG or DOPG within ternary mixtures with cholesterol are the most appropriate models for studying CPP translocation. An anionic lipid, such as DOPG, is required for the adsorption of the basic peptides on the surface of LUVs. In addition, it acts as transfer agent through the lipid bilayer. A fluid phase and/or the presence of phase defects also appear mandatory for the internalization to occur. The neutralization of charges within an inverted micelle demonstrated in the case of DOPG and also proposed for a ternary mixture of PLs might not be the only mechanism for the CPP translocation. Finally, it is shown that oleic acid facilitates the entry inside LUVs in gel phase of a series of cationic peptides including CPPs and also the negative control peptide PKCi.