Aggregation and ion transfer induced by tentoxin

It is shown that tentoxin, a cyclic tetrapeptide with two N-methylated residues, is able, when added to lipid bilayers, to increase the transmembrane current through discrete events. Conformational investigations involving 1H-NMR, infrared and circular dichroism studies show that, at concentrations above 7 X 10(-5) M, the cyclic tetrapeptide aggregates in chloroform. We suggest that the aggregates could form a pore through a stacking of cycles.