• Archives of Pharmacal Research
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.168-170
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• 1996

• Archives of Pharmacal Research
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• v.21 no.2
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• pp.164-167
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• 1998

Bis-${\gamma}$-lactones (1,2) having a perhydrofuro[3,4-c]furan-1,4-dione skeleton were designed as conformationally constrained diacylglycerol analogues. They were synthesized from D-apiose in 11 steps, and evaluated as $PKC-{\alpha}$ ligands by measuring their ability to displace bound $^3H$]PDBU from the enzyme. The compounds showed moderate binding affinities with $K_i$ values of 13.89 (${\pm}5.67$) ${\mu}M$ and 11.47 (${\pm}0.89$) ${\mu}M$, respectively. Their similar binding affinities indicate that these two bicyclic compounds were not effectively discriminated by $PKC-{\alpha}$ in terms of the direction of the side chain as other ligands built on similar bis-${\gamma}$-lactones.

• Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.35 no.12
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• pp.3627-3631
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• 2014

In this study we examined two ester-containing cross-links, hex-2-enyl acetate and hex-2-enyl propionate, as new cross-linking systems for helix stabilization of short peptides. We demonstrated that these hexenyl ester cross-links can be readily installed via a ruthenium-mediated ring-closing metathesis reaction of L-aspartic acid 4-allyl ester or L-glutamic acid 5-allyl ester at position i and (S)-2-(4'-pentenyl)alanine at position i+4 using second generation Hoveyda-Grubbs catalyst at $60^{\circ}C$. Between these two cross-links, we found that the hex-2-enyl propionate significantly stabilizes the ${\alpha}$-helical conformations of short model peptides. The helix-stabilizing effects of the hex-2-enyl propionate tether appear to be as powerful as Verdine's i,i+4 all-hydrocarbon stapling system, which is one of the most widely used and the most potent helix-stabilizing cross-linking systems. Furthermore, the hex-2-enyl propionate bridge is reasonably robust against non-enzymatic hydrolytic cleavage at a physiological pH. While extended studies for probing its chemical scopes and biological applications are needed, we believe that this new helix-stabilizing system could serve as a useful chemical tool for understanding protein folding and designing conformationally-constrained peptide drugs.