Assembly of synthetic Aβ miniamyloids on polyol templates

Covalent dynamic chemistry is used to mimic the first steps of the highly cooperative fibril formation of Aβ peptides. For that purpose, Aβ peptide pentapeptide boronic acids 1 and 2 were synthesized by solid-phase peptide synthesis and studied in esterification experiments with polyhydroxylated templates. The bis-hydroxylated dipeptide Hot=Tap serves as a template of adjustable degree of oligomerization which spontaneously forms boronic esters with peptides of type 1 and 2. Nuclear magnetic resonance can differentiate between regioisomeric boronic esters and identifies preferred sites of esterification on the dimeric template 9. 2-Formylphenylboronic acid (14) is used to link the parent pentapeptide Leu-Val-Phe-Phe-Ala to the template 16 to obtain threefold boronic ester 17. The miniamyloid 17 assembles from seven components by imine and boronic ester bonds between the peptides and the template. The relative orientation and spacing of the peptides mimic the assembly of peptides in Alzheimer β-amyloids.