Human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) is an RNA virus that is prone to high rates of mutation. While the disease is managed with current antiretroviral therapies, drugs with a new mode of action are needed. A strategy towards this goal is aimed at targeting the native three-dimensional fold of conserved RNA structures. This perspective highlights medium-sized peptides and peptidomimetics ...

Chlorination-elimination chemistry coupled with three-component Joullié-Ugi reaction and facile deprotection allowed efficient access to an array of polyhydroxylated pyrrolidines through parallel synthesis that may be considered to be a library of imino (aza) sugars (glycomimetics) and/or dihydroxyprolyl peptides (peptidomimetics). The utility of generating such a library was illustrated by scr...

Introduction RGD peptidomimetics conjugated to Inand Y-DOTA complexes, and to Gd-DTPA complex, have been recently developed to target the αvβ3 receptor. In this work, we describe the grafting of a new RGD peptidomimetic on ultrasmall particles of iron oxide (USPIO) coated with 3,3’-bis(phosphonate)propionic acid in the context of magnetic resonance molecular imaging.The grafting rates have been...

Multidrug-resistant bacteria are becoming more common and due to their multiplicity of mechanisms, they are frequently resistant to many if not all of the current antibiotics. This daunting spectre has been the target of many research efforts into conventional antibiotics and alternative approaches. This review focuses on the more recent advances in these fields with an overview on peptidomimet...

Invasive aspergillosis is a leading cause of infectious death in immunosuppressed patients. Here, we adapted a phage display library-based selection to screen and identify binding peptides to the surface of Aspergillus fumigatus conidia and hyphae. We identified a peptide (sequence CGGRLGPFC) that reliably binds to the surface of Aspergillus fumigatus hyphae. Binding was not Aspergillus strain ...

We describe the design and synthesis of a peptidomimetic library derived from the heptapeptide Ac-RDVLPGT-NH 2, belonging to the Toll/IL-1 receptor (TIR) domain of the adaptor protein MyD88 and effective in inhibiting its homodimerization. The ability of the peptidomimetics to inhibit protein-protein interaction was assessed by yeast 2-hybrid assay and further validated in a mammalian cell syst...

C-erbB (EGFR) signaling is well known to promote cancer invasiveness and metastasis. Several pharmacologic approaches have been used aiming to inhibit its activity, ie monoclonal antibodies, antibody-like molecules (peptidomimetics) and receptor tyrosine kinase inhibitors. Several C-erbB signaling ‘inhibitors’, such as Trastuzumab, Cetuximab, gefitinib, erlotinib and lapatinib are now widely us...

Look at what the cat(ionic motif) dragged in! We report a general strategy to increase the cell permeability of beta(3)-peptides. Introduction of a minimal cationic motif within the folded structure of a high-affinity beta(3)-peptide ligand for hDM2 led to molecules with high 3(14)-helical structure, high hDM2 affinity and sufficient cell permeability to upregulate p53-dependent genes in live m...

Optimized synthetic strategies for the preparation of photoswitchable molecular scaffolds based on stilbene or on thioaurone chromophores and their conformationally directing properties, as studied by computations and by NMR spectroscopy, are addressed. For the stilbene peptidomimetics 1, 2 and 3, the length of connecting linkers between the chromophore and the peptide strands was varied, resul...

Low molecular weight gelators that are not easily degraded by enzymes have a range of potential applications. Here, we report new Fmoc-protected dipeptides in which the amide carbonyl group has been replaced by an oxetane ring. Remarkably one of these peptidomimetics, but not the corresponding dipeptide, is an effective gelator, forming hydrogels at a concentration of 3 mg mL-1. On assembly, th...