170. Probing the helical secondary structure of short-chain β-peptides

Article abstract of DOI:10.1002/hlca.19960790802

Structural prerequisites for the stability of the 3₁ helix of β-peptides can be defined from inspection of models (Figs. 1 and 2): lateral non-H-substituents in 2- and 3-position on the 3-amino-acid residues of the helix are allowed, axial ones are forbidden. To be able to test this prediction, we synthesized a series of heptapeptide derivatives Boc-(β-HVal-β-HAla-β-HLeu-Xaa-β-HVal-β-HAla-β- HLeu)-OMe 13-22 (Xaa = α- or β-amino-acid residue) and a β-depsipeptide 25 with a central (S)-3-hydroxybutanoic-acid residue (Xaa = -OCH(Me)CH₂C(O)-) (Schemes 1-3). Detailed NMR analysis (DQF-COSY, HSQC, HMBC, ROESY, and TOCSY experiments) in methanol solution of the β-hexapeptide H(-β-HVal-β-HAla-β-HLeu)₂-OH (1) and of the β-heptapeptide H-β-HVal-β-HAla-β-HLeu-(S,S)-β-HAla(α Me)-β-HVal-β-HAla-β-HLeu-OH (22), with a central (2S,3S)-3-amino-2-methylbutanoic-acid residue, confirm the helical structure of such β-peptides (previously discovered in pyridine solution) (Fig. 3 and Tables 1-5). The CD spectra of helical β-peptides, the residues of which were prepared by (retentive) Arndt-Eistert homologation of the (S)- or L-α-amino acids, show a trough at 215 nm. Thus, this characteristic pattern of the CD spectra was taken as an indicator for the presence of a helix in methanol solutions of compounds 13-22 and 25 (including partially and fully deprotected forms) (Figs. 4-6) The results fully confirm predicted structural effects: incorporation of a single 'wrong' residue ((R)-β-HAla,β-HAibs (R,S)-β-HAla(α Me), or N-Me-β-HAla) in the central position of the β-heptapeptide derivatives A (see 17, 18, 20, or 21, resp.) causes the CD minimum to disappear. Also, the β-heptadepsipetide 25 (missing H-bond) and the β-heptapeptide analogs with a single α-amino-acid moiety in the middle (13 and 14) are not helical, according to this analysis. An interesting case is the heptapeptide 15 with the central achiral, unsubstituted 3-aminopropanoicacid moiety: helical conformation appears to depend upon the presence or absence of terminal protection and upon the solvent (MeOH vs. MeOH/H₂O).