Transport of natural peptides and antibacterial phosphonopeptide analogues was studied in Streptococcus faecalis ATCC 9790. Competition studies, and the isolation of peptide-transport deficient mutants, indicate the presence of two peptide permeases. One is a high-rate system used by dipeptides, and to a lesser extent tripeptides; the other is a low-rate oligopeptide system. Following uptake, p...

Backbone-fluorinated amino acids exhibit unique conformational behaviour, and have potential utility as components of bioactive shape-controlled peptides. However, methods for the elaboration of backbone-fluorinated amino acids have thus far been limited to solution phase peptide coupling reactions. In this paper, protocols are developed that allow the successful manipulation of backbone-fluori...

The cyclic peptide gramicidin S was used as a rigid template to provide novel peptide-based bisphosphine ligands for transition metal catalysis. Two bisphosphine-coordinated Rh(I) complexes allowed asymmetric hydrogenation with 10-52% ee and the corresponding Pd(II) analogues catalysed asymmetric allylic alkylation with 13-15% ee.

In this communication we show that T cell locomotion is affected by direct interaction with neurohormones. Opioid peptides, including beta-END, MET-ENK, LEU-ENK, and related enkephalin analogues enhanced migration of human peripheral blood T lymphocytes. Activity was dependent on the peptide NH2-terminal sequence, stimulated by enkephalin analogues with specificity for classical delta or mu typ...

Peptide analogues of Sch 37137 the antifungal antibiotic have been synthesized and evaluated in vitro against Candida sp. Di- and tripeptides containing methionine, leucine, norvaline, lysine, glutamic acid and N3-(trans-epoxysuccinamoyl)-L-2,3-diaminopropanoic acid, (EADP) were obtained. Peptides containing (D)-, and (L)-trans-epoxysuccinamic acid were also prepared. All of the analogues exami...

AR-23 is a melittin-related peptide with 23 residues. Like melittin, its high α-helical amphipathic structure results in strong bactericidal activity and cytotoxicity. In this study, a series of AR-23 analogues with low amphipathicity were designed by substitution of Ala1, Ala8 and Ile17 with positively charged residues (Arg or Lys) to study the effect of positively charged residue distribution...