Conformations of helical Aib peptides containing a pair of L-amino acid and D-amino acid.

A pair of L-leucine (L-Leu) and D-leucine (D-Leu) was incorporated into a-aminoisobutyric acid (Aib) peptide segments. Thedominant conformations of four hexapeptides, Boc-L-Leu-Aib-Aib-Aib-Aib-L-Leu-OMe (1a), Boc-D-Leu-Aib-Aib-Aib-Aib-L-Leu-OMe(1b), Boc-Aib-Aib-L-Leu-L-Leu-Aib-Aib-OMe (2a), and Boc-Aib-Aib-D-Leu-L-Leu-Aib-Aib-OMe (2b), were investigated by IR,¹H NMR, CD spectra, and X-ray crystallographic analysis. All peptides 1a,b and 2a,b formed 3₁₀-helical structures in solution. X-ray crystallographic analysis revealed that right-handed (P) 3₁₀-helices were present in 1a and 1b and a mixture of right-handed(P) and left-handed (M) 3₁₀-helices was present in 2b in their crystalline states.