Conformation Preservation of α-Helical Peptides within Supramolecular Filamentous Assemblies

Biomacromolecules. 2017 Nov 13;18(11):3611-3620. doi: 10.1021/acs.biomac.7b00992. Epub 2017 Sep 27.

Abstract

Hydrogen-bonded β-sheets are the most commonly explored building motifs for creating peptide-based filamentous nanostructures; however, most bioactive epitopes must assume an α-helix conformation to exert their functions. Incorporating α-helical sequences into β-sheet-forming peptides often involves the use of a flexible spacer to alleviate the steric impact of the intermolecular hydrogen bonding on the α-helical conformation. In this context, we report our findings on the alkylation-regulated conformation preservation of α-helical peptides within their filamentous assemblies. We found that the chemical conjugation of two short linear hydrocarbons (octanoic acids, C8) can retain the α-helical conformation of two protein A-derived peptide sequences while effectively driving their assembly into filamentous nanostructures. In contrast, the use of a single palmitoyl tail (C16) of similar hydrophobicity would lead to formation of β-sheet assemblies. Our studies further demonstrated that the length of the conjugated hydrocarbon also plays an important role in partially preserving the native α-helical conformation, with longer ones promoting β-sheet formation and short ones stabilizing α-helices to some extent. We believe that these findings offer important guiding principles for the alkylation of self-assembling peptides containing α-helical sequences.

MeSH terms

  • Caprylates / chemistry
  • Circular Dichroism
  • Hydrogen Bonding
  • Hydrophobic and Hydrophilic Interactions
  • Nanostructures / chemistry*
  • Peptides / chemistry*
  • Peptides / genetics
  • Protein Conformation
  • Protein Conformation, alpha-Helical*
  • Protein Conformation, beta-Strand*

Substances

  • Caprylates
  • Peptides