Related Experiment Video

Updated: Sep 6, 2025

Screening for Thermotoga maritima Membrane-Bound Pyrophosphatase Inhibitors
09:11

Screening for Thermotoga maritima Membrane-Bound Pyrophosphatase Inhibitors

Published on: November 23, 2019

6.7K

Fluorine-induced polarity increases inhibitory activity of BPTI towards chymotrypsin

Jakob Leppkes1, Nicole Dimos2, Bernhard Loll2

  • 1Department of Biology, Chemistry and Pharmacy, Institute of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Freie Universität Berlin Arnimallee 20 14195 Berlin Germany beate.koksch@fu-berlin.de.

RSC Chemical Biology
|June 27, 2022
PubMed

Substituting the P1 position in bovine pancreatic trypsin inhibitor (BPTI) is known to heavily influence its inhibitory activity towards serine proteases. Side-chain fluorinated aliphatic amino acids have been shown to alter numerous properties of peptides and proteins and thus are of interest in the context of BPTI. In our study, we systematically investigated the site-specific incorporation of non-canonical amino acids into BPTI by microwave-assisted solid-phase peptide synthesis (SPPS). Inhibitor activity of the variants was tested towards the serine protease α-chymotrypsin. We observed enhanced inhibition of two fluorinated BPTIs compared to wild type and hydrocarbon variants. To further investigate the complexes, we performed X-ray structure analysis. Our findings underline the power fluorine offers as a tool in protein engineering to beneficially alter the effects on phenomena as protein-protein interactions.

More Related Videos

Method for Identifying Small Molecule Inhibitors of the Protein-protein Interaction Between HCN1 and TRIP8b10:20

Method for Identifying Small Molecule Inhibitors of the Protein-protein Interaction Between HCN1 and TRIP8b

Published on: November 11, 2016

8.6K
Fluorescence Anisotropy as a Tool to Study Protein-protein Interactions10:44

Fluorescence Anisotropy as a Tool to Study Protein-protein Interactions

Published on: October 21, 2016

30.8K

Related Concept Videos

Molecular Shape and Polarity03:37

Molecular Shape and Polarity

Dipole Moment of a Molecule
61.9K
Electrophilic Aromatic Substitution: Fluorination and Iodination of Benzene01:13

Electrophilic Aromatic Substitution: Fluorination and Iodination of Benzene

Bromination and chlorination of aromatic rings by electrophilic aromatic substitution reactions are easily achieved, but fluorination and iodination are difficult to achieve. Fluorine is so reactive that its reaction with benzene is difficult to control, resulting in poor yields of monofluoroaromatic products. To address this, Selectfluor reagent is used as a fluorine source in which a fluorine atom is bonded to a positively charged nitrogen.
6.4K
ortho–para-Directing Deactivators: Halogens01:24

ortho–para-Directing Deactivators: Halogens

Halogens are ortho–para directors. They are more electronegative than carbon. Therefore, as ring substituents, they can withdraw electrons through the inductive effect and deactivate the aromatic ring towards electrophilic substitution. Halogens also have an electron-donating resonance effect on the ring, which influences the orientation of the incoming electrophile. If an electrophile attacks at the ortho or the para position, the halogen donates electrons and stabilizes the intermediate...
5.7K
Alkyl Halides02:45

Alkyl Halides

Structural Properties
Alkyl halides are halogen-substituted alkanes wherein one or more hydrogen atoms of an alkane is replaced by a halogen atom such as fluorine, chlorine, bromine, or iodine. The carbon atom in an alkyl halide is bonded to the halogen atom, which is sp3-hybridized and exhibits a tetrahedral shape.
Unlike alkyl halides, compounds in which a halogen atom is bonded to an sp2 -hybridized carbon atom of a carbon-carbon double bond (C=C) are called vinyl halides. Whereas aryl...
17.3K
Electrophiles02:28

Electrophiles

This lesson explains the definition, classification, and characteristic features of an electrophile that are key features of nucleophilic substitution reactions. An analysis of their charge and orbital picture helps understand their reactivity for seeking electrons. Electrophiles can be classified into positive and neutral species. Other classes include free radicals and polar functional groups.
While a positive electrophile, like a proton, reacts due to its vacant, low-energy 1s orbital, the...
11.0K
Nucleophiles02:30

Nucleophiles

The word “nucleophile” has a Greek root and translates to nucleus-loving. Nucleophiles are either negatively charged or neutral species with a pair of electrons in a high-energy occupied molecular orbital (HOMO). As these species tend to donate electron pairs, nucleophiles are considered Lewis bases as well. Negatively charged species, like OH−, Cl−, or HS−, with one or several pairs of electrons, are typically nucleophiles. Similarly, neutral species such as...
13.9K