Synthesis of Nonnatural Helical Polypeptide via Asymmetric Polymerization and Reductive Cleavage of N–O Bond

May 22, 2018

Title

Synthesis of Nonnatural Helical Polypeptide via Asymmetric Polymerization and Reductive Cleavage of N–O Bond

Author

Yuki Ishido, Naoya Kanbayashi, Taka-aki Okamura, Kiyotaka Onitsuka

Year

2017

Journal

Macromolecules

Abstract

Herein, we present a novel synthetic strategy, to amino-acid-free peptide synthesis based on postpolymerization conversion, for chiral nonnatural polypeptides. Optically active poly-N-alkoxyamides were prepared by our asymmetric polymerization as precursors of polypeptides, and the reductive cleavage of N–O bonds using a SmI2–THF complex was carried out. The reaction proceeded smoothly with quantitative conversion to afford a nonnatural polypeptide. The resulting polypeptide adopted a one-handed stable helical structure in solution, which was established by circular dichroism (CD) and theoretical calculations using density functional theory (DFT). The simulated spectra by time-dependent (TD) DFT methods clearly indicated the validity of the proposed structure. The synthetic approach is a promising candidate for the synthesis of nonnatural polypeptides.

Instrument

J-720

Keywords

Circular dichroism, Polymers