Prion diseases are marked by the cerebral accumulation of conformationally modified forms of the cellular prion protein (PrP(C)), known as PrP(res). The region comprising the residues 106-126 of human PrP seems to have a key role in this conformational conversion, because a synthetic peptide homologous with this sequence (PrP106-126) adopts different secondary structures in different environmen...

An efficient triphenylphosphine oxide-catalyzed amidation and esterification for the rapid synthesis of a series dipeptides, amides, esters is described. This reaction applicable to challenging couplings hindered carboxylic acids with weakly nucleophilic amines or alcohols, giving products in good yields (67–90%) without racemization. system employs highly reactive intermediate Ph3PCl2 as activ...

Biocatalytic acylation/amidation is well-known and has been applied for decades but it has often been limited to the use of organic solvents to avoid hydrolysis. The acyl transferase from Mycobacterium smegmatis (MsAcT) is an enzyme that can perform trans-acylations in aqueous solution. Only a few hydrolases can catalyze trans-acylation in water and MsAcT also has the ability to act as a perhyd...