Minimized beta hairpins have provided additional data on the geometric preferences of Trp interactions in TW-loop-WT motifs. This motif imparts significant fold stability to peptides as short as 8 residues. High-resolution NMR structures of a 16- (KKWTWNPATGKWTWQE, DeltaG(U)(298) >or= +7 kJ/mol) and 12-residue (KTWNPATGKWTE, DeltaG(U)(298) = +5.05 kJ/mol) hairpin reveal a common turn geometry and edge-to-face (EtF) packing motif and a cation-pi interaction between Lys(1) and the Trp residue nearest the C-terminus. The magnitude of a CD exciton couplet (due to the two Trp residues) and the chemical shifts of a Trp Hepsilon3 site (shifted upfield by 2.4 ppm due to the EtF stacking geometry) provided near-identical measures of folding. CD melts of representative peptides with the -TW-loop-WT- motif provided the thermodynamic parameters for folding, which reflect enthalpically driven folding at laboratory temperatures with a small DeltaC(p) for unfolding (+420 J K(-)(1)/mol). In the case of Asx-Pro-Xaa-Thr-Gly-Xaa loops, mutations established that the two most important residues in this class of direction-reversing loops are Asx and Gly: mutation to alanine is destabilizing by about 6 and 2 kJ/mol, respectively. All indicators of structuring are retained in a minimized 8-residue construct (Ac-WNPATGKW-NH(2)) with the fold stability reduced to DeltaG(U)(278) = -0.7 kJ/mol. NMR and CD comparisons indicate that -TWXNGKWT- (X = S, I) sequences also form the same hairpin-stabilizing W/W interaction.

Although much has been learned about the design of models of β-sheets during the last decade, modest fold stabilities in water and terminal fraying remain a feature of most β-hairpin peptides. In the case of hairpin capping, nature did not provide guidance for solving the problem. Some observations from prior turn capping designs, with further optimization, have provided a generally applicable, "unnatural" beta cap motif (alkanoyl-Trp at the N terminus and Trp-Thr-Gly at the C terminus) that provides a net contribution of 6 þ kJ∕mol to β-hairpin stability, surpassing all other interactions that stabilize β-hairpins including the covalent disulfide bond. The motif, made up entirely of natural residues, is specific to the termini of antiparallel β-strands and reduces fraying at the ends of hairpins and other β-sheet models. Utilizing this motif, 10-to 22-residue peptide scaffolds of defined stereochemistry that are greater than 98% folded in water have been prepared. The β-cap can also be used to staple together short antiparallel β-strands connected by a long flexible loop.beta sheets | capping stabilization | peptide hairpins | Trp/Trp interactions C apping motifs are well-known features of protein and peptide secondary structure; specifically, terminal alpha helix caps (especially N caps) are common both in proteins and designed peptides (1-4). The basis for helix capping is straightforward: countering the helix macrodipole and providing additional H-bonding interactions (1). Caps increase the fold population of isolated α-helical peptides and have been a boon to the design of α-helix models. β-Structures have capping requirements wholly different from those of helices; the ends of canonical β-sheets and hairpins do not have dipole moments or unsatisfied H bonds.The a priori design of model β-sheet systems (5), focused on hairpins, has lagged behind that of α-helix counterparts. The key discoveries that improved β-hairpin stabilities outside of protein contexts have been sequences with good turn propensities, for example D-Pro-Gly (pG) (6), heterochiral pP (7), and Aib-Gly (8) [or less favorably, Asn-Gly (NG) (5, 9)] and the incorporation of optimized cross-strand pairings [most notably Trp/Trp pairs flanking the turn (10-14)]. However, longer hairpin models are typically still frayed at the termini; to date, fully folded spectroscopic reference values have only been attained via cyclization (15-17). With the exception of cyclization, mutations at terminal sites have yielded only modest changes in hairpin stability; terminal coulombic effects (ΔΔG U ¼ 1.5-2.5 kJ∕mol) standing as the only generally observed capping effect (11,18,19). Pi-cation interactions have also been shown to provide significant hairpin stabilization (20), but instances in which the interaction appears near the ends of hairpins have provided only marginal stability increases (18,(21)(22)(23)). An unnatural π-cation interaction has also been shown to stabilize the turn in a tripeptide (24). There has been limited evidence for hairpin fold sta...

By combining a favorable turn sequence with a turn flanking Trp/Trp interaction and a C-terminal H-bonding interaction between a backbone amide and an i -2 Trp ring, a particularly stable (ΔG U > 7 kJ/mol) truncated hairpin, Ac-WI-(D-Pro-D-Asn)-KWTG-NH 2 , results. In this construct and others with a W-(4-residue turn)-W motif in severely truncated hairpins, the C-terminal Trp is the edge residue in a well-defined face-to-edge (FtE) aryl/aryl interaction. Longer hairpins and those with six-residue turns retain the reversed "edge-to-face" Trp/Trp geometry first observed for the trpzip peptides. Mutational studies suggest that the W-(4-residue turn)-W interaction provides at least 3 kJ/mol of stabilization in excess of that due to the greater β-propensity of Trp. The β-propensity of Trp is context dependent; but, for the systems studied, always greater than that of Thr (by 0.4 -4.7 kJ/mol). At non-H-bonded positions remote from the turn, two alternative edgeto-face geometries are observed and there is no evidence of additional stabilization due to the Trp/ Trp interaction. The NMR structuring shift diagnostics of edge-to-face Trp/Trp, Trp/Lys π-cation, and Trp/Gly-H N interactions have been defined. The latter can give rise to > 3 ppm upfield shifts for the Gly-H N in -WX n G-units both in turns (n = 2) and at the C-termini (n = 1) of hairpins. Terminal YTG units result in somewhat smaller shifts (extrapolated to 2 ppm for 100% folding). In peptides with both the EtF and FtE W/W interaction geometries, Trp to Tyr mutations indicate that Trp is the preferred "face" residue in aryl/aryl pairings, presumably due to its greater π basicity.

We have extended our studies of Trp/Trp to other Aryl/Aryl through-space interactions that stabilize hairpins and other small polypeptide folds. Herein we detail the NMR and CD spectroscopic features of these types of interactions. NMR data remains the best diagnostic for characterizing the common T-shape orientation. Designated as an edge-to-face (EtF or FtE) interaction, large ring current shifts are produced at the edge aryl ring hydrogens and, in most cases, large exciton couplets appear in the far UV circular dichroic (CD) spectrum. The preference for the face aryl in FtE clusters is W≫Y≥F (there are some exceptions in the Y/F order); this sequence corresponds to the order of fold stability enhancement and always predicts the amplitude of the lower energy feature of the exciton couplet in the CD spectrum. The CD spectra for FtE W/W, W/Y, Y/W, and Y/Y pairs all include an intense feature at 225–232 nm. An additional couplet feature seen for W/Y, W/F, Y/Y and F/Y clusters, is a negative feature at 197–200 nm. Tyr/Tyr (as well as F/Y and F/F) interactions produce much smaller exciton couplet amplitudes. The Trp-cage fold was employed to search for the CD effects of other Trp/Trp and Trp/Tyr cluster geometries: several were identified. In this account, we provide additional examples of the application of cross-strand aryl/aryl clusters for the design of stable β-sheet models and a scale of fold stability increments associated with all possible FtE Ar/Ar clusters in several structural contexts.