Journal of Medicinal Chemistry
Article
products were performed using the standard coupling method of
carbodiimmide (EDC/HOBt/NMM) in DMF as described below.
The synthesis of the cyclic peptides 9a−b begins with the coupling
between D or L Boc-Phe-OH and D or L HCl·H-Phe-OMe (Scheme 1)
to obtain three diastereoisomeric dipeptides 1a−c. The dipeptides
obtained were N-terminal deprotected in TFA 1:1 DCM. The
resulting TFA salts 2a−c were coupled with Nα-Boc-cAmp(Z)−OH to
yield the three diastereoisomeric tripeptides 3a−c. Final peptides were
prepared from 3a−c by two different synthetic pathways; in the first
way, to give the cyclic products 9a−b (see Scheme 1) and in the
second way, to give the linear products 13a−c and 15a−c (see Scheme
2). The two cyclic products 9a−b (Scheme 1) were obtained by
deprotecting the tripeptide 3a−b at the COOMe terminal by
hydrolysis with NaOH 1 N in MeOH, followed by deprotection of
Z group in position 4 of the cAmp by hydrogenolysis with Pd/C 10%
in MeOH to give 5a−c. The deprotected tripeptides 5a−c were
cyclized using pyBop coupling reagent in a highly diluted DMF (10−3
mol) solution. As mentioned before, the reaction provided only the
two cyclic products 6a−b but not the 6c diasteromer. Then, 6a−b
were N-terminal deprotected in TFA/DCM mixture, and the resulting
TFA salts 7a−b coupled to Boc-Tyr-OH give the tetrapeptides 8a−b,
which were deprotected by TFA/DCM to give the two final products
9a−b. As shown in Scheme 2, the linear products were obtained by
deprotection of the N-terminal Boc group of 3a−c and coupling the
resulting TFA salts 10a−c with Cbz-Tyr-OH to obtain the three linear
fully protected products 11a−c. Then, the COOMe terminal ester
groups were hydrolyzed by NaOH 1 N in MeOH to give the free acids
12a−c. Free acids were transformed into an amide group by activation
of the free carboxylic function by mixed anhydride and subsequent
reaction with NH4OH to give the terminal amides 14a−c. Finally, the
Cbz groups on Tyr and cAmp side chain were removed by HBr in
glacial acetic acid to give the six final linear products 13a−c and 15a−c
as HBr salts.
[MH+], calcd 570.2712; found, 570.2715. LRMS (ESI) m/z = 570.3.
Anal. Calcd for C32H35N5O5: C, 67.47; H, 6.19; N, 12.29; O, 14.04.
Found: C, 67.45; H, 6.15; N, 12.32; O, 14.09. 9b: 1H NMR
((CD3)2SO) δ 2.04−2.19 (m, 2H, Pro C3H2), 2.79−3.14 (m, 2H,
βCH2 Tyr1), 2.89−3.07 (m, 2H, βCH2 Phe3), 3.06−3.18 (m, 2H,
βCH2 Phe4), 3.24−3.97 (m, 2H, Pro C5H2), 3.71 (m, 1H, αCH Phe4),
4.12 (m, 1H, αCH Tyr1), 4.38 (m, 1H, Pro C4H), 4.40 (m, 1H, αCH
Phe3), 4.69 (m, 1H, αCH Pro), 6.44 (d, 1H, NH Pro), 6.72 (d, 2H,
C3,5H Tyr1), 7.18 (d, 2H, C2,6H Tyr1), 7.87 (d, 1H, NH Phe4), 8.04
+
(br, 3H, NH3 Tyr1), 8.27 (d, 1H, NH Phe3). ESI-HRMS for
C32H36N5O5 [MH+], calcd 570.2712; found, 570.2710. LRMS (ESI)
m/z = 570.3. Anal. Calcd for C32H35N5O5: C, 67.47; H, 6.19; N, 12.29;
O, 14.04. Found: C, 67.51; H, 6.23; N, 12.25; O, 14.01.
Biological Activity and Binding Assays. Functional Guinea Pig
Ileum (GPI) and Mouse Vas Deferens (MVD) Assays. In vitro
biological assays were performed on 9a−b as TFA salts and 13a−c and
15a−c as hydrobromide salts. GPI and MVD in vitro bioassays were
performed as described previously.24,25 For a brief description, see
Supporting Information.
Radioligand Labeled Binding Assays. μ and δ Opioid
Receptors. Crude membranes were prepared as previously described26
from transfected cells that express the MOR or the DOR. For a brief
description, see Supporting Information.
κ Opioid Receptors. κ opioid receptor (KOR) binding affinities
were carried out by CEREP, Rue du Bois l′Eveque, BP 30001−86600
Celle l′Evescault (FRANCE), following a slightly modified procedure
previously reported by Meng et al.27 Experiments were performed on
Chinese hamster ovary (CHO) cell lines that stably express human
KOP, established as previously described.27 For a brief description, see
Supporting Information.
ASSOCIATED CONTENT
* Supporting Information
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S
All solvents, reagents, and starting materials were obtained from
commercial sources unless otherwise indicated. All reactions were
performed under N2 unless otherwise noted. Intermediate products
1a−c, 3a−c, 6a-b, and 8a−b were purified by silica gel
chromatography. Products 9a−b, 13a−c, and 15a−c used for the
biological assay were purified by RP-HPLC using a semipreparative
Vydac (C18-bonded, 300 Å) column and a gradient elution at a flow
rate of 10 mL/min. The gradient used was 10−90% acetonitrile in
0.1% aqueous TFA over 40 min. Approximately 10 mg of crude
peptide was injected each time, and the fractions containing the
purified peptide were collected and lyophilized to dryness. The purity
of the final products, determined by NMR analysis and by analytical
RP-HPLC (C18-bonded 4.6 × 150 mm) at a flow rate of 1 mL/min on
a Waters Binary pump 1525 using a isocratic elution of 20% CH3CN/
H2O 0.1% TFA, monitored with a Waters 2996 Photodiode Array
Detector, was found to be >95%.
Details of syntheses, general procedures, compound character-
ization, biochemistry, and experimental section. This material is
AUTHOR INFORMATION
Corresponding Author
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*Phone: +34-08713554476. Fax: +39-08713554477. E-mail: a.
Notes
The authors declare no competing financial interest.
ABBREVIATIONS USED
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Boc, tert-butyloxycarbonyl; BSA, bovine serum albumin; Cbz,
carbobenzoxy; GPI, guinea pig ileum; DAMGO[3H], [3H]-[D-
Ala(2),N-Me-Phe-(4),Gly-ol(5)]enkephalin; [3H]-U69593,
[3H]-(+)-(5α,7α,8β)-N-methyl-N-[7-(1-pyrrolidinyl)-1-
oxaspiro[4.5]dec-8-yl]benzeneacetamide; DCM, dichlorome-
thane; DIPEA, diisopropylethylamine; [3H-]DPDPE, [3H]-[2-
D-penicillamine,5-D-penicillamine]enkephalin; DMF, N,N-di-
methylformamide; DMSO, dimethyl sulfoxide; DOR, δ opioid
receptor; EDC, 1-ethyl-(3-dimethylaminopropyl)carbodiimide;
HOBt, 1-hydroxybenzotriazole; IBCF, isobutyl chloroformate;
MOR, μ opioid receptor; MVD, mouse vas deferens; NMM, N-
methylmorpholine; PMSF, phenylmethylsulfonyl fluoride; RP-
HPLC, reversed phase high performance liquid chromatog-
raphy; TFA, trifluoroacetic acid; THF, tetrahydrofuran; TMS,
tetramethylsilane; PyBop, benzotriazol-1-yloxytripyrrolidino-
phosphonium hexafluorophosphate
1H NMR spectra were performed in CDCl3 or DMSO-d6 solution
on a Varian Inova operating at the 1H frequency of 300 MHz and on a
1
Bruker AVANCE AQS600 operating at the H frequency of 600.13
MHz. Chemical shifts were referred to TMS as internal standard in the
case of CDCl3 solution and to the residual proton signal of DMSO at
2.5 ppm in the case of DMSO-d6 solution. Peptide structures were
determined by means of 2D NMR experiments, namely, 1H−1H
1
TOCSY and H−1H NOESY. Peptide structures were also confirmed
by high resolution-mass spectra (HR-MS)
2 ppm. For the final
products, 9a−b, 13a−c, and 15a−c, elementary analyses (within
0.4% of the theoretical values) were performed.
TFA·Tyr-c[4-NH-Pro-Phe-Phe] (9a−b). Compound 8a−b (1.0
equiv) was dissolved in 1:1 CH2Cl2/TFA mixture according to the
1
general procedure to give 9a (93%) and 9b (87%). 9a: H NMR
((CD3)2SO) δ 1.39−2.38 (m, 2H, Pro C3H2), 2.76−2.93 (m, 2H,
βCH2 Phe4), 2.84−3.09 (m, 2H, βCH2 Phe3), 2.89−2.97 (m, 2H,
βCH2 Tyr1), 3.42−3.50 (m, 2H, Pro C5H2), 3.50 (m, 1H, αCH Pro),
3.86 (m, 1H, αCH Tyr1), 3.89 (m, 1H, Pro C4H), 4.41 (m, 1H, αCH
Phe4), 4.62 (m, 1H, αCH Phe3), 6.15 (d, 1H, NH Pro), 6.74 (d, 2H,
C3,5H Tyr1), 6.98 (d, 2H, C2,6H Tyr1), 7.65 (d, 1H, NH Phe3), 7.94 (d,
1H, NH Phe4), 8.36 (br, 3H, NH3+ Tyr1). ESI-HRMS for C32H36N5O5
REFERENCES
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(1) Janecka, A.; Staniszewska, R.; Gash, K.; Fichna, J. Enzymatic
degradation of endomorphins. Peptides 2008, 29, 2066−2073.
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dx.doi.org/10.1021/jm300947s | J. Med. Chem. XXXX, XXX, XXX−XXX