Enantiomerically pure beta-amino-acid derivatives with the side chains of Ale, Val, and Leu in the 2- or 3-position (beta(2)- and beta(3)-amino acids, resp.), as well as with substituents in both the 2- and 3-positions (beta(2,3)-amino acids, of like-configuration) have been prepared (compounds 8-17) and incorporated (by stepwise synthesis and fragment coupling, intermediates 24-34) into beta-hexa-, beta-hepta-, and beta-dodecapeptides (1-17). The new and some of the previously prepared beta-peptides (35-39) showed NH/ND exchange rates (in MeOH at room temperature) with tau(1/2) values of up to 60 days, unrivalled by short chain alpha-peptides. All beta-peptides 1-7 were designed to be able to attain the previously described beta(1)-helical structure (Figs. I and 2). CD Measurements (Fig. 4), indicating a new secondary structure of certain beta-peptides constructed of beta(2)- and beta(3)-amino acids, were confirmed by detailed NMR solution-structure analyses: a beta(2)-heptapeptide (2c) and a beta(2,3)-hexapeptide (7c) have the 3,beta(1)-helical structure (Figs. 6 and 7), while to a beta(2)/beta(3)-hexapeptide (4) with alternating substitution pattern H-(beta(2)-Xaa-beta(3)-Xaa)(3)-OH a novel, unusual helical structure (in (D-5)pyridine, Fig. 8; and in CD3OH, Figs. 9 and 10) was assigned, with a central ten-membered and two terminal twelve-membered H-bonded rings, and with C=O and N-H bends pointing alternatively up and down along the axis of the helix (Fig. 11). Thus, for the first time, two types of beta-peptide turns have been identified in solution. Hydrophobic interactions of and hindrance to solvent accessibility by the aliphatic side chains are discussed as possible factors influencing the relative stability of the two types of helices.
