It was previously reported that D-amino acid-containing peptides exhibited the ability to resist enzymatic hydrolysis. This study investigated the influence of mini-PEGs modification on enzymatic hydrolysis ability of D-amino acid-containing peptides. The results showed that PEGylation promoted enzymatic hydrolysis of the D-amino acid-containing peptide, especially, the cleavage rate of the D-amino acid-containing peptide 6-w with PEG3 modification at the N-ends was up to 17 times higher in the presence of proteinase K (PROK) compared to those without PEG3 modification. Moreover, analysis of the enzymatic cleavage sites demonstrated a similar cleavage pattern of the PEGylated D-amino acid-containing peptide to that of the unmodified peptide. The computational simulations further showed that the enhanced enzymatic hydrolysis ability can be attributed to the strong interaction between PROK and the peptide after PEG3 modification and the resulting formation of a mature catalytic triad structure.
Keywords: D-amino acid; PEGylation; enzymatic hydrolysis; peptide; proteinase K.
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