Cucurbit[7,8]urils are known to form inclusion complexes with hydrophobic amino acids such as Trp, Tyr, Phe, and Met, as well as peptides containing these residues at the N-terminus. Despite their widespread use in protein purification, the affinity of histidine (His) for cucurbit[7,8]urils has not been extensively explored. In this study, X-ray diffraction experiments were conducted to investigate the binding of two histidine moieties to the cucurbit[7]uril (CB7) cavity, resulting in a network of π-π and hydrogen bonds. This assembly was found to induce a His pKa shift of ΔpKa=-4. Histidine weakly bound to CB7 or CB8; however, isothermal titration calorimetry revealed micromolar equilibrium dissociation constant values for CB7 and CB8 when bound to dipeptides containing His at the C-terminus. Conversely, dipeptides with His at the N-terminus exhibited millimolar values. Additionally, the His-Gly-Gly tripeptide formed a 2 : 1 complex with CB7. These findings suggest the potential use of histidine and histidine-containing tags in conjunction with CB7 for various biological applications.
Keywords: X-ray structure; amino acid; binding affinity; molecular recognition; peptides.
© 2023 The Authors. Chemistry - A European Journal published by Wiley-VCH GmbH.