Tripeptides 423

The following short descriptions of the steps involved in the synthesis of a tripeptide will demonstrate the complexity of the problem amino acid units. In the later parts of this section we shall describe actual syntheses of well defined oligopeptides by linear elongation reactions and of less well defined polypeptides by fragment condensation. 

J.E. Baldwin (1975, 1976A) has developed a biomimetic synthesis which is loosely analogous to the biosynthetic pathway which starts with the so-called Amstein tripeptide. Baldwin used bicyclic dipeptides more suitable for stereoselective in vitro syntheses. 

There are several levels of pepfide sfrucfure The primary structure is the ammo acid sequence plus any disulfide links With the 20 ammo acids of Table 27 1 as building blocks 20 dipeptides 20 tripeptides 20" tetrapeptides and so on are possible Given a peptide of unknown structure how do we determine its ammo acid sequence" ... 

Tripeptide (Section 27 1) A compound m which three a ammo acids are linked by peptide bonds... 

The sequence of amino acids in a peptide can be written using the three-letter code shown in Figure 45.3 or a one-letter code, both in common use. For example, the tripeptide, ala.ala.phe, could be abbreviated further to AAF Although peptides and proteins have chain-like structures, they seldom produce a simple linear system rather, the chains fold and wrap around each other to give complex shapes. The chemical nature of the various amino acid side groups dictates the way in which the chains fold to arrive at a thermodynamically most-favored state. 

I Residual tripeptide Process continued until E is reached... 

H-Tyr-D-Ala-Pile-Asp-Val-Val-Gly-NH2 (D-Ala -deltorpliiu I) and H-Tyr-D-Ala-Plie-Glu-Val-Val-Gly-NH2 (D-Ala -deltorpliiu II) display greater 5-selectivity than DPDPE owiag to their higher 5-receptor affinity (96). These compounds both contain the same N-terminal tripeptide sequence as the. -selective dermorphins, which underscores the importance of the C-terminal tetrapeptide sequence in conferring 5-selectivity. 

Fig. 11. Use of D-amino acids in the synthesis of a hairpin loop portion from the CD4 receptor (a) all L-Ser—Lys—Ala tripeptide constmcted in the natural...

Other specific discovery assays have been used such as differential inhibition of a vancomycin resistant S. aureus strain and its susceptible parent, and an assay based on antagonism of the antibacterial activity by N,A/-diacetyl-L-Lys-D-Ala-D-Ala [24570-39-6] a tripeptide analogue of the dalbaheptides receptor. AppHcation of this latter test to 1936 cultures (90) led to the isolation of 42 dalbaheptides, six of which, including kibdelin (Table 3), parvodicin (Table 3), and actinoidin A2 (68) were novel. A colorimetric assay based on competition between horseradish peroxidase bound teicoplanin and the... 

Recognition of the thio group s key role in biochemistry has led to studies of l,4-ben2oquinone with glutathione, a tripeptide 7-Glu-Cys-Gly (GSH). The cross-oxidation of the initial addition product by excess quinone leads, under physiological conditions, to all three isomeric products (46), ie, the 2,3-and 2,6-isomers as well as the 2,5-disubstituted l,4-ben2oquinone shown. 

Muramyl tripeptide phosphatidylethanolamine (MTP-PE), a synthetic analogue of muramyl dipeptide and an effective systemic macrophage activator, induces a variety of cytokines such as IL-1, IL-6, and TNE, as well as PGE2 (205). Preirradiation treatment of mice using MTP-PE encapsulated in Hposomes, which can intensify radioprotective abiHty, stimulates the monocyte/macrophage system and accelerates the recovery of hemopoietic cells. 

Cysteine [52-90 ] is a thiol-bearing amino acid which is readily isolated from the hydrolysis of protein. There ate only small amounts of cysteine and its disulfide, cystine, in living tissue (7). Glutathione [70-18-8] contains a mercaptomethyl group, HSCH2, and is a commonly found tripeptide in plants and animals. Coenzyme A [85-61-0] is another naturally occurring thiol that plays a central role in the synthesis and degradation of fatty acids. 

The IPNS enzyme has also been shown to recognize modified tripeptides. The synthesis of a range of tripeptides, other than aminoadipoyl cysteinyl valine (ACV) (Table 6), has given rise to a selection of modified penicillins using IPNS as a means of cyclizing the tripeptide (58). 

Proteins. The most abundant and physiologically diverse natural biopolymers are proteins, which make up enzymes, hormones, and stmctural material such as hair, skin, and connective tissue. The monomer units of natural proteins, a-amino acids, condense to form dipeptides, tripeptides, polypeptides, and proteins. 

The first two entries in Table 9 illustrate the above principle. Both tripeptide Boc—Cys(SBzl)—D-vai-OBzi and dipeptide Z—Tyr—D-Arg-OMe are... 

These signals in the NOE spectra therefore in principle make it possible to determine which fingerprint in the COSY spectrum comes from a residue adjacent to the one previously identified. For example, in the case of the lac-repressor fragment the specific Ser residue that was identified from the COSY spectrum was shown in the NOE spectrum to interact with a His residue, which in turn interacted with a Val residue. Comparison with the known amino acid sequence revealed that the tripeptide Ser-His-Val occurred only once, for residues 28-30. 

A dipeptide is a molecule consisting of two anino acids joined by a peptide bond. A tripeptide has three amino acids joined by two peptide bonds, a tetrapeptide has four fflnino acids, and so on. Peptides with more than 30-50 anino acids are polypeptides. Proteins are polypeptides that have some biological function. 

If you synthesized the tripeptide Leu-Phe-Ser from amino acids prepared by the Strecker synthesis, how many stereoisomers would you expect to be formed ... 

Peptide is the name assigned to short polymers of amino acids. Peptides are classified by the number of amino acid units in the chain. Each unit is called an amino acid residue, the word residue denoting what is left after the release of HgO when an amino acid forms a peptide link upon joining the peptide chain. Dipeptides have two amino acid residues, tripeptides have three, tetrapeptides four, and so on. After about 12 residues, this terminology becomes cumbersome, so peptide chains of more than 12 and less than about 20 amino acid residues are usually referred to as oligopeptides, and, when the chain exceeds several dozen amino acids in length, the term polypeptide is used. The distinctions in this terminology are not precise. 

Given 20 different amino acids, a polypeptide chain of n residues can have any one of 20 possible sequence arrangements. To portray this, consider the number of tripeptides possible if there were only three different amino acids. A, B, and C (tripeptide = 3 =n ... 

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