Peptide-based linkages

The problem of the nucleophilicity of amides in glycosylation reactions is not limited to the sulfoxide method and has been shown to result in the formation of glycosyl imidates from intermolecular reaction with activated donors. It appears that this problem may be suppressed by the prior silylation of the amide [348,349]. Accordingly, it may be sufficient to operate the sulfoxide method with an excess of triflic anhydride when amides are present so as to convert all amides into O-triflyl imidates, which are then hydrolyzed on work-up. Despite these problems, several examples have been published of successful sulfoxide glycosylation reactions with acceptors carrying remote peptide bonds [344,345] and with donors coupled to resins via amide-based linkages [346,347], with no apparent problems reported. Sulfonamides and tertiary amides appear to be well tolerated by the sulfoxide method [340,350],... 

In recent years, methods for the catalytic cleavage of the P-O bond in phosphate esters have been developed. It is now reported that a cyclic P-sheet peptide -based binuclear zinc (II) complex markedly accelerated the cleavage of the phosphodiester linkage of the RNA model substrate 2-hydroxypropyl p-nitro-phenyl phosphate (102) (Scheme 17). °... 

All the US-FDA approved Pis except Tipranavir (7) are substrate-based peptidic inhibitors. These inhibitors were designed using the "transition state peptidomimetic principle, which means that in the inhibitors the hydrolyzable peptide linkage is replaced by a non-hydrolyzable transition-state isostere (Fig. 11a) [158]. A munber of such isosteres were studied including statin, norstatin, hydroxyethylene, reduced amide, hydroxyethylamine, hydroxyethyl urea, monoalcohol, diol and aminodiols (Fig. 11b) [158]. Various classes of inhibitors containing dihydroxyethylene transition state isosteres were extensively developed. As an alternative to the peptide-based approach penicillin-derived C2 symmetric compounds were also pursued. 

In view of these constraints, we recently suggested a different strategy for the improvement of the material properties of synthetic poly (amino acids) (12). Our approach is based on the replacement of the peptide bonds in the backbone of synthetic poly(amino acids) by a variety of "nonamide" Linkages. "Backbone modification," as opposed to "side chain modification," represents a fundamentally different approach that has not yet been explored in detail and that can potentially be used to prepare a whole family of structurally new polymers. 

Our interest in the synthesis of poly (amino acids) with modified backbones is based on the hypothesis that the replacement of conventional peptide bonds by nonamide linkages within the poIy(amino acid) backbone can significantly alter the physical, chemical, and biological properties of the resulting polymer. Preliminary results (see below) point to the possibility that the backbone modification of poly(amino acids) circumvents many of the limitations of conventional poly(amino acids) as biomaterials. It seems that backbone-modified poly (amino acids) tend to retain the nontoxicity and good biocompatibility often associated with conventional poly (amino acids)... 

Hammer RP, Albericio F, Gera L, Barany G. Practical approach to solid-phase synthesis of C-terminal peptide amides under mild conditions based on photolysable anchoring linkage. Int J Peptide Protein Res 1990 ... 

Peptidic photoprobes can be based on the photoreactive amino acid p-benzoyl-L-phenylalanine inserted into a peptide in place of a natural aromatic residue by peptide synthesis [65] or by manipulation of the genetic code [66]. The use of p-benzoyl-L-phenylalanine for this purpose is not new, but the nature of peptide probes naturally offers opportunities for the location of linkage sites by proteomic analysis [67]. 

The effectiveness of proteolytic, amylolytic, and lipolytic detergent enzymes is based on enzymatic hydrolysis of peptide, glucosidic, or ester linkages. The mainstay of the market has been the protease types. 

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