Selective binding of two-armed diketopiperazine receptors to side-chain-protected peptides

The binding properties of two-armed receptors based on a diketopiperazine template toward side-chain-protected peptides have been elucidated. Selective binding of these diketopiperazine receptors is not limited to side-chain-free peptides, but combinatorial on-bead assays show that also side-chain-protected peptides are recognized with high specificity. Furthermore, the screening of several dye-marked diketopiperazine receptors against an encoded side-chain-protected tripeptide library demonstrated not only their high binding specificities but also revealed that small structural changes suffice to alter the binding preferences significantly.