Progress Toward the Design, Synthesis, and Analysis of Paired Coiled-Coil Peptidic Molecular Building Blocks

Initial progress toward the design, synthesis, and characterization of paired coiled-coil peptidic molecular building blocks are presented. Molecular building blocks have been used for the manufacturing of advanced materials, the formulation of new drugs and drug delivery systems, the advancement of technology, and are fundamentally at the core to biological synthesis and processes. Eight unique 32-residue peptides were designed and successfully synthesized with one modified residue to covalently crosslink two peptides via a 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition click reaction. These crosslinked dipeptidic molecular building blocks were specifically designed for controlled self-assembly with their complementary peptide pair, resulting in paired α-helical coiled-coil heterodimer peptide pairs. HPLC, mass spectroscopy, and size exclusion chromatography (SEC) results show successful synthesis and purification of individual peptides. Additional SEC data shows successful click reaction of peptide pairs and self-assembly of paired coiled-coil peptides.