Maintaining biological activity by using triazoles as disufide bond mimetics

Article abstract of DOI:10.1002/anie.201005846

Click into place: Tachyplesin-I (TP-I) analogues in which both disulfide bridges (1) have been replaced with triazoles (2) represent structural mimetics of TP-I that display similar or slightly improved antibacterial activity. Optimized structures were obtained by replacing the cysteine residues in TP-I by azido- and alkyno-functionalized amino acids. Copyright

Full text of DOI:10.1002/anie.201005846

Communications
DOI: 10.1002/anie.201005846
Peptidomimetics
Maintaining Biological Activity by Using Triazoles as Disufide Bond
Mimetics**
Kai Holland-Nell and Morten Meldal*
Disulfide bonds constitute an abundant and important
structural element in the folding of proteins and peptides.
By forming macrocycles, the three-dimensional structure of
proteins and peptides can be stabilized and rigidified. For
peptides in particular, the biological activity of these com-
pounds is closely associated with the correct folding of the
structure.[1] Despite its stabilizing effect in peptides and
proteins, the disulfide bridge itself is rather unstable. Disul-
fide isomerases, as well as reducing agents and thiols, can
affect this covalent bond and can lead to structural rearrange-
ment with a complete loss of activity. The replacement of this
essential structural element by bioisosteric, and hydrolytically
and reductively stable substitutes is therefore of great
interest.
acids. On-resin cyclization during solid-phase peptide syn-
thesis (SPPS) provides triazoles as disulfide mimetics.
Tachyplesin I (TP-I), which is a 17-residue bicyclic peptide
that contains two disulfide bonds, maintains a b-hairpin
ribbon structure (Figure 1) in its bioactive form, as shown by
NMR spectroscopy studies.[6,7] When the four cysteine groups
Several approaches to substitution of the disulfide bridge
by more stable covalent connections such as amides, thio-
lethers, diselenides, or carbon-based bridges, have been
reported.[2,3] In the present study we explore the potential of
using triazoles as functional mimetics of multiple naturally
occurring disulfide bonds in biologically active peptides.
Triazoles exhibit chemical orthogonality and provide excel-
lent stability against isomerases and proteases.[4] Moreover,
triazoles can be formed in a two-component approach, which
is comparable to that of disulfide bond formation from two
cysteine residues. The Huisgen cycloaddition of an alkyne and
an azide readily generates the triazole. The introduction of
copper(I) catalysis in this reaction has accelerated the
reaction rate by seven to eight orders of magnitude, therefore
the reaction can now be performed under very mild con-
ditions and has been applied in numerous assemblies of
complex molecular architectures.[5] The two-component
approach allows directional formation of disulfide bond
mimetics by the substitution of two or more cysteine residues
in a peptide with alkyno- and azido-functionalized amino
Figure 1. Mimicking of disulfide bridges by triazoles in tachyplesin-I by
the replacement of cysteine residues by alkyno (X) and azido amino
acids (Z), which form triazoles upon the copper-catalyzed cycloaddi-
tion of the azides and alkynes (“click” reaction): a) tachyplesin-I and
b) linear analogues. Cyclization leads to c) the correctly folded hairpin
structure or d) incorrectly folded globule-like structure.
involved in disulfide bridging are replaced with functionalized
amino acids for the “click strategy”, the intrinsic fold of the
linear TP-I should facilitate the correct positioning of the
reactive groups to provide the TP-I connection pattern and
produce bioactive TP-I analogues.
Propargylglycine (Pra) was selected as the alkyno-func-
tionalized amino acid to replace Cys-3 and Cys-7; the azido-
functionalized amino acids, 2-amino-4-azido-butyric acid
(2Abu(g-N3)) and 5-azido-norvaline (Nva(d-N3)) were used
to replace Cys-12 and Cys-16 in TP-I. 2Abu(g-N3) and Nva(d-
N3) were produced in a good yield by using the diazotransfer
method reported by Lundquist and Pelletier.[8]
In order to maintain the correct structural folding of TP-I
upon cyclization, the peptide synthesis was performed on
poly(acryloyl-bis(aminopropyl)polyethylene glycol) (PEGA)
resins, which enables the cyclization to occur under aqueous
reaction conditions.[9] Additionally, the hydroxymethylben-
zoic acid (HMBA) linker facilitates on-resin deprotection
prior to the cyclization. The alkyne and azide building blocks
were easily incorporated into the peptide chain to generate
[*] Prof. M. Meldal
Carlsberg Laboratory
Gamle Carlsberg Vej 10, 2500 Valby (Denmark)
Fax: (+45)3327-4708
E-mail: mpm@crc.dk
Dr. K. Holland-Nell
Leibniz-Insitut fꢀr Molekulare Pharmakologie
Robert-Rꢁssle-Str. 10, 13125 Berlin (Germany)
[**] We would like to acknowledge the inspiring discussions and
support from Prof. A. Beck-Sickinger and B. Petersen, and financial
support by a PostDoc grant from the Deutsche Forschungsge-
meinschaft.
Supporting information (for detailed experimental data) for this
article is available on the WWW under http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/
anie.201005846.
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Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2011, 50, 5204 –5206

two different linear tachyplesin analogues: [3,7Pra,12,162Abu(g-
N3)]-TP-I and [3,7Pra,12,16Nva(d-N3)]-TP-I.
The resin-bound and deprotected peptides were subjected
to different reaction conditions for the copper(I)-mediated
[2+3] cycloaddition to produce the triazole-containing bicy-
clic peptides. Widely used methods for on-resin triazole
formation, including CuI or CuBr dissolved in organic
solvents, as well as CuSO4/ascorbate under aqueous reaction
conditions[5d] resulted in low yields of the cyclic TP-I
analogues. However, exposure of the linear TP-I analogues
to CuSO4/tris(carboxyethyl)phosphine resulted in a successful
cyclization, as shown by HPLC/MS. Two cyclic products were
produced for each linear TP-I analogue ([3,7Pra,12,162Abu(g-
N3)]-TP-I and [3,7Pra,12,16Nva(d-N3)]-TP-I) by using these
reaction conditions. Microwave irradiation during the cycli-
zation did not significantly influence the yield of the reaction,
but shortened the reaction times and changed the ratio
between the two cyclic products formed from 1:7 to 1:1.5
(ribbon-like structure/globule-like structure, Figure 1c,d).
The ESI-MS/MS spectra of the linear and the two cyclic
peptides presented completely different fragmentation pat-
terns. The full sequence of ions corresponding to all the amino
acids contained in the peptide were present in both the y and
b series in the linear product. In contrast, the cyclic TP-I
analogues only presented fragment ions corresponding to
fragmentation outside the bicyclic region. Additionally, the
reduction of the azide by dithiothreitol with concurrent loss of
N2 was carried out to analyze the presence or absence of azido
Figure 2. Models of the wild-type TP-I peptide and [3,7Pra,12,16Nva(d-
N3)]-TP-I based on NMR structure determination: a) [3,7Pra,12,16Nva(d-
N3)]-TP-I, b) structural alignment of wild type TP-I (green) and
[
3,7Pra,12,16Nva(d-N3)]-TP-I (gray). The yellow arrows represent the
peptide backbone.
1
groups.[10] Finally, H NMR spectroscopic analysis provided
full structure determination of the cyclic products and
evidence that the major product had the correctly folded
ribbon-like hairpin stucture (see the Supporting Informa-
tion).
The almost perfect mimicking of the wild-type TP-I
structure indicated that the cyclic analogues should exhibit
similar biological activity to the wild-type disulfide-bridged
TP-I. The biological activity of the TP1-mimicking peptides
was studied in antimicrobial assays. Several bacterial strains
The triazole formation was performed on a solid support
in contrast to a previously reported peptide “click” cycliza-
tion.[5d] In this on-resin cyclization of the linear TP-I
analogues, the cyclodimer and cyclooligomer were not
observed, although such products were predominant and, in
some cases, the only product in previous studies on cyclization
in solution.[11] The absence of these structures here may be
partly due to the separation of the peptides during the on-
resin cyclization and partly due to the use of aqueous reaction
conditions that favour the intrinsic b-hairpin fold of TP-I and
minimize the effect of interchain hydrogen bonds. This
hypothesis is in agreement with the effect of microwave
heating on the unfolding of the linear TP-I analogues, and the
formation of incorrectly folded globule-like structures.
Modeling of [3,7Pra,12,16Nva(d-N3)]-TP-I and wild-type TP-
I based on NOE studies showed there is a high degree of
similarity between the wild-type TP-I and the triazole-
containing analogue (Figure 2). Similar results were obtained
for [3,7Pra,12,162Abu(g-N3)]-TP-I, for which the similarity was
optimal for the disulfide bonds but less so for the peptide
backbone (see the Supporting Information). The structure of
the triazole-containing TP-1 analogues not only imitates the
b-hairpin structure of the backbone of the wild-type TP-1, but
also positions most of the side chains in the required
orientation. Both cyclic TP-I analogues form a symmetrical
homodimer in aqueous solution (Figure 3).
Figure 3. Molecular dynamics calculation of the dimer formation of
cyclized [3,7Pra,12,162-Abu(d-N3)]-TP-I according to the NMR structure
determination and long-range NOE constraints. The dimerization may
be mechanistically important for the high selectivity towards bacterial
cell membranes (see the Supporting Information).
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Communications
were grown in the presence of increasing concentrations of
the TP-I analogues and the minimal inhibitor concentration
(MIC) was determined (Table 1). Neither the linear nor the
Keywords: antibacterial activity · click chemistry · cyclization ·
nitrogen heterocycles · peptidomimetics
.
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Table 1: MIC of tachyplesin-I analogues.[a]
E. coli Staphylococcus
epdermis
Salmonella
typhimurium
Bacillus
subtilis
TP-I wild-type
11.5[12] 2.3[13]
12.5[5]
6.3[6]
12.0
3.0
>200[12]
[
3,7Pra,12,162Abu- 10.0
8.0
5.5
(g-N3)]-TP-I[b]
[
3,7Pra,12,16Nva-
7.0
10.5
4.5
(d-N3)]-TP-I[b]
[a] MIC values reported in mgmLÀ1. [b] Tachyplesin-I analogues correctly
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misfolded cyclic analogues showed any significant antimicro-
bial activity. In contrast, the MIC values in the different
bacterial strains for the correctly cyclized peptides that have a
hairpin structure are comparable or even better than those for
the wild-type TP-I.
In conclusion, we have demonstrated that triazoles can be
considered as an appropriate mimetic of disulfide bridges in
peptides. The side-chain to side-chain linkage established by
“click” chemistry opens a synthetic route for creating even
more complex patterns of triazole-bridged peptides. The
structural similarity of the novel TP-I analogues is strongly
supported by the almost identical biological activity of the
analogues and TP-I. The NOE-based structure determination
of the triazole analogues predicted a homodimer that
completely masks the hydrophobic nature of the molecule
and may be important for the design of novel antimicrobiotics
based on this scaffold.
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Received: September 17, 2010
Published online: March 29, 2011
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