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Douglas A Horton

Publications and source records attributed to Douglas A Horton.

6 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed2005

A convenient method for synthesis of cyclic peptide libraries.

Cyclic peptides have been reported to bind to multiple, unrelated classes of receptor with high affinity. Owing to the robustness of amide bond chemistry, the ability to explore extensive chemical diversity by incorporation of unnatural and natural amino acids, and the ability to explore conformational diversity, through the incorporation of various constraints, arrays of cyclic peptides can be tailored to broadly sample chemical diversity. We describe the combination of a safety catch linker with a directed-sorted procedure for the synthesis of large arrays of diverse cyclic peptides for high-throughput screening.

Amino Acids↗
PubMed2003

Difficult macrocyclizations: new strategies for synthesizing highly strained cyclic tetrapeptides.

[reaction: see text] Cyclic tetrapeptides are an intriguing class of natural products. To synthesize highly strained cyclic tetrapeptides we developed a macrocyclization strategy that involves the inclusion of 2-hydroxy-6-nitrobenzyl (HnB) group at the N-terminus and in the "middle" of the sequence. The N-terminal auxiliary performs a ring closure/ring contraction role, and the backbone auxiliary promotes cis amide bonds to facilitate the otherwise difficult ring contraction. Following this route, the all-L cyclic tetrapeptide cyclo-[Tyr-Arg-Phe-Ala] was successfully prepared.

Amides↗
PubMed2002

Exploring privileged structures: the combinatorial synthesis of cyclic peptides.

Head-to-tail cyclic peptides have been reported to bind to multiple, unrelated classes of receptor with high affinity. They may therefore be considered to be privileged structures. This review outlines the strategies by which both macrocyclic cyclic peptides and cyclic dipeptides or diketopiperazines have been synthesised in combinatorial libraries. It also briefly outlines some of the biological applications of these molecules, thereby justifying their inclusion as privileged structures.

Combinatorial Chemistry Techniques↗
PubMedDate not supplied

A versatile synthetic approach to peptidyl privileged structures using a "safety-catch" linker.

Peptidyl privileged structures have been widely used by many groups to discover biologically active molecules. In this context, privileged substructures are used as "hydrophobic anchors", to which peptide functionality is appended to gain specificity. Utilization of this concept has led to the discovery of many different active compounds at a wide range of biological receptors. A synthetic approach to these compounds has been developed on a "safety-catch" linker that allows rapid preparation of large libraries of these molecules. Importantly, amide bond formation/cleavage through treatment with amines is the final step; it is a linker strategy that allows significant diversification to be easily incorporated, and it only requires the inclusion of an amide bond. In addition, chemistry has been developed that permits the urea moiety to be inserted at the N-terminus of the peptide, allowing the same set of amines (either privileged substructures or amino acid analogues) to be used at both the N- and C-termini of the molecule. To show the robustness of this approach, a small library of peptidyl privileged structures were synthesized, illustrating that large combinatorial libraries can be synthesized using these technologies.

Amides↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Exploring privileged structures: the combinatorial synthesis of cyclic peptides.

Head-to-tail cyclic peptides have been reported to bind to multiple, unrelated classes of receptor with high affinity. They may therefore be considered to be privileged structures. This review outlines the strategies by which both macrocyclic cyclic peptides and cyclic dipeptides or diketopiperazines have been synthesised in combinatorial libraries. It also briefly outlines some of the biological applications of these molecules, thereby justifying their inclusion as privileged structures.

Combinatorial Chemistry Techniques↗