Solid-phase synthesis of NMe-IB-01212, a highly N-methylated cyclic peptide

N-Methylation of peptides is an important synthetic tool in peptide-based medicinal chemistry. Herein, an optimized strategy for solid-phase synthesis of small but highly N-methylated cyclic peptides is described. The proposed route addresses several problems associated with the synthesis of peptides containing several sequential N-methyl-amino acids, such as in situ N-methylation, difficulty of acylation, epimerization, diketopiperazine formation, and stability at the NMe sites under trifluoroacetic acid exposure. The resulting NMe-IB-01212 exhibits micromolar activity and considerable stability.