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Updated: Jun 12, 2026

Constructing Thioether/Vinyl Sulfide-tethered Helical Peptides Via Photo-induced Thiol-ene/yne Hydrothiolation
Published on: August 1, 2018
Modulation of the peptide backbone conformation by the selenoxo photoswitch
Yun Huang1, Günther Jahreis, Christian Lücke
1Max-Planck Research Unit for Enzymology of Protein Folding, Weinbergweg 22, D-06120 Halle/Saale, Germany.
Abstract:
Photocontrol of the backbone conformation is a useful step forward in regulating the bioactivities of peptides and proteins by means of external signals. In the present work, the selenium analogue of a peptide bond was introduced into tetrapeptides to obtain surprisingly stable selenoxo peptides. Selenoxo peptide bonds allow for a marked increase of cis content in the photostationary state of peptide chains when irradiated with UV light near 290 nm. Slow thermal re-equilibration with rate constants between 9.9 x 10(-4) and 1.3 x 10(-5) s(-1) shows that the transient nonequilibrium conformations exist long enough to monitor the isomer specificity of biochemical reactions.
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