Foldamers of bifunctional diketopiperazines displaying a beta-bend ribbon structure

The synthesis of two oligomers, of a bifunctional diketopiperazine scaffold DKP-1, formally derived from the cyclization of l-aspartic acid and (S)-2,3-diaminopropionic acid, is reported. A trimeric and a tetrameric structure were prepared by solution-phase peptide synthesis (Boc strategy). Conformational analysis of these derivatives was carried out by a combination of 1H NMR spectroscopy, CD spectroscopy, and molecular modeling, and revealed the formation of β-bend ribbon involving 10-membered H-bonded rings and a reverse turn of the growing peptide chain.