Conformational behavior of polyalanine peptides with and without protecting groups of varying chain lengths: population of PP-II structure!

Oculopharyngeal muscular dystrophy (OPMD), a polyalanine myopathy, occurs due to expansion of homo-polyalanine stretch in normal polyadenylating binding protein nuclear 1 (PABPN1) protein from Ala10 to Ala11-17. Therefore, the conformational behavior of polyalanine peptides with n = 10-17, with and without terminal protecting groups, have been investigated with different starting geometries in water by molecular dynamics simulation studies. Alanine peptides are shown to give rise to unordered structure irrespective of starting geometry and not more than two residues at a stretch have the same/similar set of φ, ψ values.

Conformational behavior of phenylglycines and hydroxyphenylglycines and non-planarity of phenyl rings.

The non-proteinogenic amino acids--phenylglycine (PG) and hydroxyphenylglycine (HPG) are crucial components of certain peptidic natural products and are important for the preparation of various medicines. In this, study, the conformation of model dipeptides Ac-X-NHMe of PG, p-HPG and 3, 5-di-hydroxyphenylglycine (3, 5-DHPG) was studied both in R and S form by quantum mechanical (QM) and molecular dynamics approaches. On the energy scale, the conformational states of these molecules in both the R and S were found to be degenerate by QM studies, stabilized by non-covalent interactions like carbonyl--carbonyl interactions, carbonyl-lp .

Construction and conformational behavior of peptoids with cis-amide bond geometry: design of a peptoid with alternate φ, ψ values of inverse PP-II/PP-II and PP-I structures.

In peptoids due to the absence of amide protons, the backbone is devoid of hydrogen bond donor, linked by tertiary amide, which can be iso-energetic between cis and trans-amide bond geometry. The peptoids can be realized with cis amide bond if the side chain of ith residue can engage the carbonyl group of ith-1 residue in CH--O interactions. Simulations studies both in water and DMSO have been carried out.

Conformational study of N-methylated alanine peptides and design of Abeta inhibitor.

N-Methylation increases the proteolytic stability of peptides and leads to improved pharmacological and increased nematicidal property against plant pathogens. In this study, the quantum mechanical and molecular dynamic simulation approaches were used to investigate conformational behavior of peptides containing only N-methylated alanine (NMeAla) residues and N-methylated alanine and alanine residues at alternate positions. The amide bond geometry was found to be trans and the poly NMeAla peptides were shown to populate in the helical structure without hydrogen bond with phi, psi values of - 0, 90 degrees stabilized by carbonyl-carbonyl interactions.

Insights on the structural characteristics of Vim-TBS (58-81) peptide for future applications as a cell penetrating peptide.

The plasma membrane presents a remarkable barrier for the delivery of peptide and nucleic acid based drugs to the inside of cells. This restraint in the path of their development as therapeutic agents can be offset by their conjugation to cell penetrating peptides (CPPs) that can lead to an improved pharmacological profile. In this context, conformational behavior of Vimentin Tubulin Binding Site (TBS) peptide, Vim-TBS (58-81), was investigated for its acknowledged cell penetrating properties along with Trans-activating Tat (48-60) peptide and a pro-apoptogenic peptide of p21/WAFI protein (p10).