查看文章

The ability to manipulate the specific conformation of peptides and proteins is an essential feature in the development of novel therapeutic agents and biomaterials. 1 To date there are few examples of designed peptides and proteins with the capacity to change conformation as a result of an internal switching mechanism. 2 In thispaper we describe a strategy to reversibly change the conformation of a cyclic peptide (1) by incorporating a photoresponsive amino acid residue within the peptide. 3 The cyclic peptide was designed to include an azobenzene-containing amino acid (Aza) 3 as the conformational switch; it was flanked by four alanine residues for flexibility and four residues with high propensities to exist in a turn conformation (Gly-Gly-Pro-Asn). 4 The peptide was designed such that when Aza contained a trans azo linkage the peptide portion would exist in an extended conformation, and when isomerized to …