Bicyclic peptide ligands pulled out of cysteine-rich peptide libraries

J Am Chem Soc. 2013 May 1;135(17):6562-9. doi: 10.1021/ja400461h. Epub 2013 Apr 17.

Abstract

Bicyclic peptide ligands were found to have good binding affinity and target specificity. However, the method applied to generate bicyclic ligands based on phage-peptide alkylation is technically complex and limits its application to specialized laboratories. Herein, we report a method that involves a simpler and more robust procedure that additionally allows screening of structurally more diverse bicyclic peptide libraries. In brief, phage-encoded combinatorial peptide libraries of the format X(m)CX(n)CX(o)CX(p) are oxidized to connect two pairs of cysteines (C). This allows the generation of 3 × (m + n + o + p) different peptide topologies because the fourth cysteine can appear in any of the (m + n + o + p) randomized amino acid positions (X). Panning of such libraries enriched strongly peptides with four cysteines and yielded tight binders to protein targets. X-ray structure analysis revealed an important structural role of the disulfide bridges. In summary, the presented approach offers facile access to bicyclic peptide ligands with good binding affinities.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Alkylation
  • Amino Acid Sequence
  • Amino Acids / chemistry
  • Bridged Bicyclo Compounds / chemistry*
  • Combinatorial Chemistry Techniques
  • Crystallization
  • Cysteine / chemistry*
  • Disulfides
  • Electrophoresis, Polyacrylamide Gel
  • Ligands
  • Models, Molecular
  • Molecular Sequence Data
  • Oxidation-Reduction
  • Peptide Library
  • Peptides / chemistry*
  • X-Ray Diffraction

Substances

  • Amino Acids
  • Bridged Bicyclo Compounds
  • Disulfides
  • Ligands
  • Peptide Library
  • Peptides
  • Cysteine