Peptaibols are proteolysis-resistant, membrane-active peptides. Their remarkably stable helical 3D-structures are key for their bioactivity. They can insert themselves into the lipid bilayer as barrel staves, or lay on its surface like carpets, depending on both their length and the thickness of the lipid bilayer. Medium-length peptaibols are of particular interest for studying the peptide-membrane interaction because their length allows them to adopt either orientation as a function of the membrane thickness, which, in turn, might even result in an enhanced selectivity. Electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) is the election technique used to this aim, but it requires the synthesis of spin-labeled medium-length peptaibols, which, in turn, is hampered by the poor reactivity of the Cα-tetrasubstituted residues featured in their sequences. After several years of trial and error, we are now able to give state-of-the-art advice for a successful synthesis of nitroxide-containing peptaibols, avoiding deleted sequences, side reactions and difficult purification steps. Herein, we describe our strategy and itsapplication to the synthesis of spin-labeled analogs of the recently discovered, natural, medium-length peptaibol pentadecaibin. We studied the antitumor activity of pentadecaibin and its analogs, finding potent cytotoxicity against human triple-negative breast cancer and ovarian cancer. Finally, our analysis of the peptide conformational preferences and membrane interaction proved that pentadecaibinspin-labeling does not alter the biological features of the native sequence and is suitable for further EPR studies. The nitroxide-containing pentadecaibins, and their synthetic strategy described herein, will help to shed light on the mechanism of the peptide-membrane interaction of medium-length peptaibols.
Keywords: antitumor peptide; breast cancer; peptaibol; peptide–membrane interaction; α-helical conformation.