A cyclodecapeptide ligand to vitamin B12.

Libraries of cyclic decapeptides were screened with vitamin B(12) derivatives to give cyclic peptide ligands incorporating histidine and cysteine as coordinating residues and negatively charged amino acids. Two hits, cyclo-(HisAspGluProGlyIleAlaThrProdGln) and cyclo-(ValAspGluProGlyGluAspCysProdGln) were resynthesized in good yields for solution experiments. The peptides bind aquocobalamin with coordination of His or Cys to the cobalt with high affinities (K(a) approximately 10(5) M(-1)). Additional interactions between the peptide side chains and the vitamin B(12) corrin moiety were determined by studying the (1)H NMR solution structure. The cyclopeptide-cobalamin complex with the histidine residue showed enhanced stability towards cyanide exchange, demonstrating the shielding effect of the ligand on the metal center.

Structure-based design of small peptide inhibitors of protein kinase CK2 subunit interaction.

X-ray crystallography studies, as well as live-cell fluorescent imaging, have recently challenged the traditional view of protein kinase CK2. Unbalanced expression of catalytic and regulatory CK2 subunits has been observed in a variety of tissues and tumours. Thus the potential intersubunit flexibility suggested by these studies raises the likely prospect that the CK2 holoenzyme complex is subject to disassembly and reassembly. In the present paper, we show evidence for the reversible multimeric organization of the CK2 holoenzyme complex in vitro. We used a combination of site-directed mutagenesis, binding experiments and functional assays to show that, both in vitro and in vivo, only a small set of primary hydrophobic residues of CK2beta which contacts at the centre of the CK2alpha/CK2beta interface dominates affinity. The results indicate that a double mutation in CK2beta of amino acids Tyr188 and Phe190, which are complementary and fill up a hydrophobic pocket of CK2alpha, is the most disruptive to CK2alpha binding both in vitro and in living cells. Further characterization of hotspots in a cluster of hydrophobic amino acids centred around Tyr188-Phe190 led us to the structure-based design of small-peptide inhibitors. One conformationally constrained 11-mer peptide (Pc) represents a unique CK2beta-based small molecule that was particularly efficient (i) to antagonize the interaction between the CK2 subunits, (ii) to inhibit the assembly of the CK2 holoenzyme complex, and (iii) to strongly affect its substrate preference.

Alpha and beta L-Fucopyranosyl oxyamines: key intermediates for the preparation of fucose-containing glycoconjugates by oxime ligation.

We report herein the synthesis of new alpha and beta aminooxylated L-fucopyranosyl derivatives for the preparation of glycoclusters through oxime ligation. The glycosylation reaction between activated triacetylated L-fucopyranosyl fluoride and N-hydroxyphthalimide was carried out in the presence of boron trifluoride-diethyl etherate and the stereochemical outcome of glycosylation was compared in dichloromethane, acetonitrile or tetrahydrofuran. Interestingly, an unexpected alpha and beta anomer ratio was obtained in spite of the presence of an acetate participating group at the carbon 2, particularly the 1,2-cis glycosylation was largely favoured in acetonitrile. The resulting alpha and beta N-oxyphthalimido fucopyranosyl derivatives were finally deprotected with methylhydrazine to obtain the corresponding free aminooxylated fucopyranosyls. The structure of single-crystal alpha anomer 12 was analysed by X-ray diffraction.