Direct Observation of Anion‐Mediated Translocation of Fluorescent Oligoarginine Carriers into and across Bulk Liquid and Anionic Bilayer Membranes

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Abstract
The recent hypothesis that counteranion‐mediated dynamic inversion of charge and solubility might contribute to diverse functions of oligoarginines in biomembranes was tested with two fluorescently labelled oligomers, FL‐R8, one of the most active cell‐penetrating peptides, and its longer version, FL‐R16. We report evidence for counteranion‐mediated phase transfer from water into bulk chloroform and anionic lipid‐bilayer membranes as well as reverse‐phase transfer from bulk chloroform and across intact lipid‐bilayer membranes into water. The differences found between FL‐R8 and FL‐R16 with regard to location in the bilayer and reverse‐phase transfer from bulk and lipid‐bilayer membranes into water implied that the reported results may be relevant for biological function.