Issue 18, 2023

Site-selective post-modification of short α/γ hybrid foldamers: a powerful approach for molecular diversification towards biomedical applications

Abstract

The extensive research work in the exhilarating area of foldamers (artificial oligomers possessing well-defined conformation in solution) has shown them to be promising candidates in biomedical research and materials science. The post-modification approach is successful in peptides, proteins, and polymers to modulate their functions. To the best of our knowledge, site-selective post-modification of a foldamer affording molecules with different pendant functional groups within a molecular scaffold has not yet been reported. We demonstrate for the first time that late-stage site-selective functionalization of short hybrid oligomers is an efficient approach to afford molecules with diverse functional groups. In this article, we report the design and synthesis of hybrid peptides with repeating units of leucine (Leu) and 5-amino salicylic acid (ASA), regioselective post-modification, conformational analyses (based on solution-state NMR, circular dichroism and computational studies) and morphological studies of the peptide nanostructures. As a proof-of-concept, we demonstrate the applications of differently modified peptides as drug delivery agents, imaging probes, and anticancer agents. The novel feature of the work is that the difference in reactivity of two phenolic OH groups in short biomimetic peptides was utilized to achieve site-selective post-modification. It is challenging to apply the same approach to short α-peptides having a poor folding tendency, and their post-functionalization may considerably affect their conformation.

Graphical abstract: Site-selective post-modification of short α/γ hybrid foldamers: a powerful approach for molecular diversification towards biomedical applications

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
04 May 2023
Accepted
09 Jul 2023
First published
01 Aug 2023

Biomater. Sci., 2023,11, 6210-6222

Site-selective post-modification of short α/γ hybrid foldamers: a powerful approach for molecular diversification towards biomedical applications

S. K. H. Shah, U. Modi, K. Patel, A. James, S. N, S. De, R. Vasita and P. Prabhakaran, Biomater. Sci., 2023, 11, 6210 DOI: 10.1039/D3BM00766A

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