Cyclopeptides are an important class of substances in nature, and their physiological effects are frequently based on the tendency to form bioactive conformations. Therefore the investigation of their structure yields an understanding of their functionalities. Mass-selective combined IR/UV spectroscopy in molecular beam experiments represents an ideal tool for structural analyses on isolated molecules in the gas phase, such as the investigated cyclo[L-Tyr(Me)-D-Pro](2) peptide and its complexes with water. Using the chosen spectroscopic method in combination with DFT calculations, an assignment of a structure with two intramolecular hydrogen bonds for the naked cyclopeptide is possible. For the monohydrated cluster two isomers have to be discussed: in one of them the water molecule is simply attached to the assigned monomer structure as hydrogen donor, whereas the second isomer can be characterized by a water molecule that is inserted into one of the intramolecular hydrogen bonds.

A cyclopeptide-based anion receptor containing alternating 6-aminopicolinic acid and substituted (4R)-4-aminoproline subunits with appended β-alanine residues binds sulfate anions in water. Importantly, appreciable sulfate binding is even observed in phosphate buffer, hence in the presence of anions of similar structure but with a different degree of protonation. The cause for the high selectivity of this receptor is related to the mode of action of the sulfate-binding protein.

Cyclic peptides represent a large class of substances that occur in nature with important biological and medical functions. Synthetic cyclic peptides are used as artificial receptors due to a series of advantages over conventional receptors. In order to optimize their binding abilities, investigations of their intrinsic structural properties especially with regard to the influence of different amino acid residues are fundamental. Here we report the structural analysis of two synthetic cyclic tetrapeptides cyclo[l-Tyr(Me)-d-Pro-l-Ala-d-Pro] (CPAla) and cyclo[l-Tyr(Me)-d-Pro-l-Glu(Me)-d-Pro] (CPGlu) in a molecular beam by means of combined IR/UV spectroscopic techniques. Structural assignments were achieved by comparing experimentally obtained vibrations and harmonically calculated frequencies including dispersion corrections (B3LYP-D3/TZVP). The investigated cyclic peptides contain an arrangement of an amino acid sequence which is no longer symmetric compared to the former investigations of the cyclo[l-Tyr(Me)-d-Pro] peptide. It turns out that all investigated compounds prefer conformations stabilized by two internal hydrogen bonds. In the case of CPGlu containing a flexible side chain with a terminal hydrogen bond acceptor an additional structure was observed in which a hydrogen bond between the terminal carboxylate group and a ring NH group is formed.

International audienceCryptophanes are macropolycyclic cyclophanes constructed from two triply bridged concave cyclotriveratrylene analogues that encapsulate a large range of molecular and monoatomic substrates. Self-assembled metallo-organic cryptophanes based on M2+–carbonitrile (M = Pd or Pt) interactions have been obtained through the reactions of chiral nitrile-substituted cyclotribenzylenes (CTBs) 1 and 2 with [M(dppp)][OTf]2 (dppp = 1,3-bisdiphenylphosphinopropane, OTf = triflate) in 2:3 ratios in chlorinated solvents. The cryptophanes [Pd3(dppp)3(1)2]6+ and [Pd3(dppp)3(2)2]6+ were obtained exclusively in the chiral anti form in solution at room temperature whatever solvent was used; however the meso,syn form was identified as the major isomer of [Pd3(dppp)3(1)2]6+ at low temperature in CD2Cl2, and – in the case of [Pt3(dppp)3(1)2]6+ – it formed in a minor amount at room temperature. [Pd3(dppp)3(1)2][OTf]6 and [Pt3(dppp)3(1)2][OTf]6 crystallized in the anti forms with an encapsulated chloroform molecule, and gas-phase DFT calculations with the dispersion-corrected B97-D3 functional show that it is stabilized by 34.6 kJ mol–1. Interestingly, the heteroleptic cryptophane [Pd3(dppp)3(1)(2)]6+ was not detected in mixtures of [Pd(dppp)]2+ and CTBs 1 and 2 in a 3:1:1 ratio or through the equilibration of a 1:1 mixture of the preformed homoleptic cryptophanes; this points to favored self-sorting processes