Abstract
We have synthesized a chemically defined, dimeric form of an erythropoietin mimetic peptide (EMP) that displays 100-fold increased affinity for the erythropoietin receptor (EPOR) and correspondingly elevated potency in cell-based assays and in mice. The dimeric EMP1 was synthesized using a C-terminal lysine residue as a branch point. A β-alanine residue was coupled to the main-chain (α) amino group of the lysine residue in order to provide a pseudosymmetrical scaffold where both the side-chain and main-chain were of approximately equal length. Using an orthogonal protection system, independently disulphide-cylized EMP1 moieties were synthesized upon this scaffold. The proposed mechanism of increased potency of the dimer over the parental compound EMP1 is consistent with the structure of a cocrystal of EMP1 and the extracellular domain of the EPOR in which a noncovalent peptide dimer is seen spanning the cleft between two molecules of the EPOR extracellular domain.
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Wrighton, N., Balasubramanian, P., Barbone, F. et al. Increased potency of an erythropoietin peptide mimetic through covalent dimerization. Nat Biotechnol 15, 1261–1265 (1997). https://doi.org/10.1038/nbt1197-1261
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nbt1197-1261
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