Ligand binding cyclic peptides

The antibiotics are compounds secreted by microbes that enhance the permeability of membranes to cations. One class functions by binding a metal to give a liposoluble complex that can then pass across the membrane. Examples are valinomycin, a cyclic peptide that binds K+ selectively, and monensin which binds Na+. These too are oxygen-donor ligands, and will be discussed in the following section. They function as antibiotics because they allow the concentrations of a cation across membranes to become equalized, and so cause the collapse of the membrane potential. 

A series of cyclic conformationally constrained peptides related to somatostatin were designed, synthesized and tested for opioid receptor interaction by Hruby and his collaborators. Compounds (17)-(22) were found to be pure opioid antagonists (GPI) with high affinity (IC50 = 1.2 to 4.3 nM) and exceptional selectivity for p over S opioid receptors (Table 3.1) and with minimal or no somatostatin-like activity (ligand binding assays)[63-65]. 

An inverse task is given when there is demand for a macromolecule that specifically binds a small ligand. This question has only recently been addressed by peptide chemistry. For example, antiparallel bundles of four a-helices, which were assembled on a cyclic peptide structure as template, have been used to create hydro-phobic cavities for heme as a low-molecular-weight compound [3]. The specific complexation of Fe " protoporphyrin IX was facilitated by the proper positioning of liganding His residues. While this approach could be interesting from the perspective of rational protein design, it may be limited to special applications, and detailed structural information about the complex is not yet available. 

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