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Updated: Feb 17, 2026

Constructing Cyclic Peptides Using an On-Tether Sulfonium Center
Published on: September 28, 2022
General and Facile Route to Isomerically Pure Tricyclic Peptides Based on Templated Tandem CLIPS/CuAAC Cyclizations
Gaston J J Richelle1, Sumeet Ori1, Henk Hiemstra1
1Bioinspired Organic Synthesis, Van't Hoff Institute for Molecular Sciences (HIMS), Science Park 904, 1098 XH, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
Abstract:
We report a one-pot ligation/cyclization technology for the rapid and clean conversion of linear peptides into tricyclic peptides that is based on using tetravalent scaffolds containing two benzyl bromide and two alkyne moieties. These react via CLIPS/CuAAC reactions with cysteines and azides in the peptide. Flexibility in the scaffolds is key to the formation of isomerically pure products as the flexible scaffolds T41 and T42 mostly promote the formation of single isomeric tricycles while the rigid scaffolds T43 and T44 do not yield clean products. There seems to be no limitation to the number and types of amino acids present as 18 canonical amino acids were successfully implemented. We also observed that azides at the peptide termini and cysteine residues in the center gave better results than compounds with the functional groups placed the other way round.
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