Synthesis, conformation and biological activity of dermorphin and deltorphin I analogues containing N-alkylglycine in place of residues in position 1, 3, 5 and 6

Syntheses are described of new dermorphin and [D‐Ala2]deltorphin I analogues in which the phenylalanine, the tyrosine or the valine residues have been substituted by the corresponding N‐alkyl‐glycine residues. Structural investigations by CD measurements in different solvents and preliminary pharmacological experiments were carried out on the resulting peptide–peptoid hybrids. The contribution from aromatic side chain residues is prominent in the CD spectra of dermorphin analogues and the assignment of a prevailing secondary structure could be questionable. In the CD spectra of deltorphin analogues the aromatic contribution is lower and the dichroic curves indicate the predominance of random conformer populations. The disappearance of the aromatic contribution in the [Ntyr1,D‐Ala2]‐deltorphin spectrum could be explained in terms of high conformational freedom of the N‐terminal residue. The kinetics of degradation of the synthetic peptoids digestion by rat and human plasma enzymes were compared with that of [Leu5]‐enkephalin. The binding to opioid receptors was tested on crude membrane preparations from CHO cells stably transfected with the µ‐ and δ‐opioid receptors. The biological potency of peptoids was compared with that of dermorphin in GPI preparations and with that of deltorphin I in MVD preparations. All the substitutions produced a dramatic decrease in the affinity of the peptide–peptoid hybrids for both the µ‐ and δ‐opioid receptors. Nval5 and/or Nval6 containing hybrids behaved as µ‐opioid receptor agonists and elicit a dose‐dependent analgesia (tail‐flick test) when injected i.c.v. in rats. Copyright © 2003 European Peptide Society and John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.