Preparation of de novo globular proteins based on proline dendrimers.

A synthetic method for the preparation of protein-like globular dendrimers derived from a combination of proline, glycine and imidazolidin ring as branching unit is described. The methodology allows the synthesis of novel peptide dendrimers up to fourth generation. Dendrimers were synthesized by a convergent solid-phase peptide synthesis approach.

Solid-phase synthesis of second-generation polyproline dendrimers.

Second-generation dendrimers have been prepared on solid phase by successive additions of branched polyproline building blocks starting from two different branching units anchored to the solid support. The preparation of Pro-rich building blocks was carried out by stepwise solid-phase synthesis and their iterative addition was performed by a convergent approach, also using solid-phase synthesis. cis-4-Amino-L-proline and imidazolidine-2-carboxylic acid were used as branching units due to their structural resemblance to proline.

Peptide dendrimers based on polyproline helices.

We present a new family of peptide dendrimers based on polyproline helices and cis-4-amino-L-proline as a branching unit. Dendrimers were synthesized by a convergent solid-phase peptide synthesis approach. The conformational transition between polyproline type I helix and polyproline type II helix was observed by circular dichroism in branched polyproline building blocks with more than 14 proline residues and in the resulting dendrimers.