β-Amino acids containing peptides and click-cyclized peptide as β-turn mimics: a comparative study with 'conventional' lactam- and disulfide-bridged hexapeptides

The increasing interest in click chemistry and its use to stabilize turn structures led us to compare the propensity for β-turn stabilization of different analogs designed as mimics of the β-turn structure found in tendamistat. The β-turn conformation of linear β-amino acid-containing peptides and triazole-cyclized analogs were compared to 'conventional' lactam- and disulfide-bridged hexapeptide analogs. Their 3D structures and their propensity to fold in β-turns in solution, and for those not structured in solution in the presence of α-amylase, were analyzed by NMR spectroscopy and by restrained molecular dynamics with energy minimization. The linear tetrapeptide Ac-Ser-Trp-Arg-Tyr-NH(2) and both the amide bond-cyclized, c[Pro-Ser-Trp-Arg-Tyr-D-Ala] and the disulfide-bridged, Ac-c[Cys-Ser-Trp-Arg-Tyr-Cys]-NH(2) hexapeptides adopt dominantly in solution a β-turn conformation closely related to the one observed in tendamistat. On the contrary, the β-amino acid-containing peptides such as Ac-(R)-β(3) -hSer-(S)-Trp-(S)-β(3) -hArg-(S)-β(3) -hTyr-NH(2) , and the triazole cyclic peptide, c[Lys-Ser-Trp-Arg-Tyr-βtA]-NH(2) , both specifically designed to mimic this β-turn, do not adopt stable structures in solution and do not show any characteristics of β-turn conformation. However, these unstructured peptides specifically interact in the active site of α-amylase, as shown by TrNOESY and saturation transfer difference NMR experiments performed in the presence of the enzyme, and are displaced by acarbose, a specific α-amylase inhibitor. Thus, in contrast to amide-cyclized or disulfide-bridged hexapeptides, β-amino acid-containing peptides and click-cyclized peptides may not be regarded as β-turn stabilizers, but can be considered as potential β-turn inducers.