Picking the tyrosine-lock: chemical synthesis of the tyrosyl-DNA phosphodiesterase I inhibitor recifin A and analogues

The peptide recifin A is the inaugural member of the structurally intriguing new fold referred to as a tyrosine-lock. Its central four stranded β-sheet is stabilized by a unique arrangement in which three disulfide bonds and their interconnecting backbone form a ring that wraps around one of the strands, resulting in a Tyr side chain being buried in the molecular core. Here we aimed to establish a synthetic route to this complex class of natural products. Full length recifin A was successfully generated through native chemical ligation chemistry joining two 21 amino acid residue fragments. Surprisingly, reduced linear recifin A readily adopts the correct, topologically-complex fold via random oxidation of the cysteines, suggesting it is highly energetically favored. Utilizing our synthetic strategy, we generated five recifin A analogues to investigate the structural role of the central Tyr residue and provide the first insights into the structure activity relationship of recifin A towards its cancer target tyrosyl-DNA phosphodiesterase I. Chemical synthesis of the peptide recifin A reveals insights into its unique structure and interaction with the cancer target TDP1.