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Fifteen years ago it was shown that an alpha-aminoisobutyric acid (Aib) residue is significantly more effective than an L-Pro or a D-amino acid residue in inducing beta-sheet disruption in short model peptides. As this secondary structure element is known to play a crucial role in the neuropathology of Alzheimer's disease, it was decided to check the effect of Aib (and other selected, helix inducer, C(alpha)-tetrasubstituted alpha-amino acids) on the beta-sheet conformation adopted by a protected pentapeptide related to the sequence 17-21 of the beta-amyloid peptide. By use of FT-IR absorption and 1H NMR techniques it was found that the strong self-association characterizing the pentapeptide molecules in weakly polar organic solvents is completely abolished by replacing a single residue with Aib or one of its congeners.

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SynopsisThe conformational properties of synthetic S-peptide analogs, in which the residues in the N-terminal sequence 1-6 were progressively deleted or replaced with amino acids of lower helical propensity, were studied by CD. Increasing the concentration of guanidine hydrochloride and decreasing the temperature were found to produce progressive destruction of ordered conformations, in parallel with the increasing solubility of the peptide unit, while increasing the concentration of trifluoroethanol and decreasing the temperature produced the opposite effect. The maximum helicity determined in these sets of experiments is found equal to or greater than that determined in the formation of the ribonuclease S' complexes.With some peptides the maximum value of predicted helical conformation is reached, and the tendency of tertiary structure to reduce the maximum possible helicity is evident. We discuss the validity of the procedure by which conformational information, drawn from measurements in helicogenic solvents, is related to the state in native protein.

Terminally protected homopeptides of tert-leucine, from the dimer to the hexamer, co-oligopeptides of tert-leucine in combination with alpha-aminoisobutyric acid or glycine residues up to the hexamer level, and simple dipeptides representing known scaffolds for catalysts in asymmetric organic reactions were prepared by solution methods and fully characterized. The results of conformation analysis, performed by use of FT-IR absorption, NMR, CD, and X-ray diffraction techniques, indicate that this hydrophobic alpha-amino acid with tetrasubstitution at the Cbeta atom is structurally versatile. We show that it prefers extended or semiextended conformations, but can also be accommodated in folded structures, provided that these are biased by the presence of helicogenic residues. The current large-scale production of Tle, combined with its conformational preferences unravelled in this work, should make this bulky, hydrophobic, Calpha-trisubstituted alpha-amino acid a regular building block of any strategy seeking to tailor peptides with improved catalytic and pharmacological properties.