Amphipathic control of the 310‐/α‐helix equilibrium in synthetic peptides

Abstract: A series of short, amphipathic peptides incorporating 80% C^α,C^α‐disubstituted glycines has been prepared to investigate amphipathicity as a helix‐stabilizing effect. The peptides were designed to adopt 3₁₀‐ or α‐helices based on amphipathic design of the primary sequence. Characterization by circular dichroism spectroscopy in various media (1 : 1 acetonitrile/water; 9 : 1 acetonitrile/water; 9 : 1 acetonitrile/TFE; 25 mm SDS micelles in water) indicates that the peptides selectively adopt their designed conformation in micellar environments. We speculate that steric effects from ith and ith + 3 residues interactions may destabilize the 3₁₀‐helix in peptides containing amino acids with large side‐chains, as with 1‐aminocyclohexane‐1‐carboxylic acid (Ac₆c). This problem may be overcome by alternating large and small amino acids in the ith and ith + 3 residues, which are staggered in the 3₁₀‐helix.