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. Molecular dynamic simulations in water/methanol revealed the formation of beta-strand structure, irrespective of the starting geometry due to the interaction of solvent molecules with the carbonyl groups of peptide backbone. Analysis of simulation results as a function of time suggested that the opening of helical structure without hydrogen bond started from C-terminal. Conformational behavior of peptides containing N-MeAla and Ala was used to design Abeta peptide inhibitor and the model tetrapeptide Ac-Ala-NMeAla-Ala-NHMe in the beta-strand structure was shown to interact with the hydrophobic stretch of Abeta15-42 peptide.