Spiegelmers are high-affinity L-enantiomeric oligonucleotide ligands that display high resistance to enzymatic degradation compared with D-oligonucleotides. The target binding properties of Spiegelmers can be designed by an in vitro-selection process starting from a random pool of oligonucleotides. Applying this method, a Spiegelmer with high affinity (K D ‫؍‬ 20 nM) for the peptide hormone, gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH) was isolated. The Spiegelmer acts as an antagonist to GnRH in Chinese hamster ovary cells stably expressing the human GnRH receptor, and its activity is unchanged by linking to 40-kDa polyethylene glycol. In a castrated rat model the Spiegelmer further demonstrated strong GnRH antagonist activity, which is more pronounced and persists longer with the polyethylene glycol-linked derivative. Furthermore, in rabbits the anti-GnRH Spiegelmer was shown to have a very low, possibly negligible immunogenic potential. These studies suggest that Spiegelmers could be of substantial interest in the development of new pharmaceutical approaches against GnRH and other targets.in vitro selection ͉ mirror-image oligonucleotide ͉ animal model ͉ aptamer ͉ immunogenicity S piegelmers are mirror-image, high-affinity oligonucleotide ligands composed of L-ribose or L-2Ј-deoxyribose units. The chiral inversion results in high stability in plasma compared with natural D-oligonucleotide ligands, aptamers, suggesting that Spiegelmers may display favorable in vivo behavior and present future potential for therapeutic and diagnostic applications (1). Spiegelmers thus offer a promising alternative to aptamers, the limited in vivo stability of which continues to be a major obstacle to clinical development despite extensive efforts to improve the structure of the oligonucleotide backbone (2, 3).Spiegelmers can fold into distinct three-dimensional structures generating high-affinity ligands that can be selected against defined pharmacological targets. High-affinity Spiegelmers with the desired target-binding properties can be identified by using an adaptation of the SELEX (systematic evolution of ligands by exponential enrichment) procedure (4). Because L nucleic acids are not compatible with SELEX because of the enantio specificity of the enzymes used for amplification, a ''mirror-image'' SELEX approach is used. The first step is to select an aptamer against the enantiomeric form of the natural target. After trimming to the minimal binding motif, the equivalent L form of the aptamer, the Spiegelmer, then is synthesized, and because of the reciprocal chirality, this Spiegelmer binds with high affinity to the natural target. The basic concept of combining molecular evolution with chiral inversion stemmed from the identification of a D-peptide ligand for the SH3 domain of c-Src by using a phage display approach (5). Mirror-image RNA ligands to adenosine and arginine as well as an enantiomeric DNA specific for vasopressin were identified by mirror-image SELEX and have been described previously (1, 6, 7).Gonadotropin-releasi...

The transmembrane domain of the nicotinic acetylcholine receptor (nAChR) from Torpedo californica electric tissue contains both alpha‐helical and beta structures. The secondary structure was investigated by Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy after the extramembrane moieties of the protein from the extracellular and intracellular sides of the membrane were removed by proteolysis using proteinase K. The secondary structure composition of this membrane structure was: alpha‐helical 50%, beta structure and turns 40%, random 10%. The alpha‐helices are shown to be oriented with respect to the membrane plane in a way allowing them to span the membrane, while no unidirectional structure for the beta structures was observed. These findings contradict previous secondary structure models based on hydropathy plots alone.

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Alamethicin is known to lyse different biological cells and to induce voltage dependent ion channels in lipid bilayers. A set of analogs with proline shifted from position 14 in the native peptide towards the N- and C-terminus was used to investigate the role of proline in: (i) alamethicin induced hemolysis of human red blood cells, (ii) stimulation of catecholamine secretion from bovine adrenal chromaffin cells and (iii) induction of metabolic activity in bovine aortic endothelial cells. Half maximal hemolytic activity was found at 30 microM alamethicin concentration, complete lysis occurred at 100 microM. The stimulation of catecholamine secretion in the presence of extracellular Ca2+ was concentration dependent up to 50 microM alamethicin. At this high concentration mild secretion was also found in the absence of Ca2+ indicating cell membrane damage. Alamethicin transiently stimulated the metabolic rate of endothelial cells in a concentration dependent mode up to 20 microM while the inhibition of metabolism at higher concentrations pointed to a toxic effect. The alamethicin analogs were completely inactive in all the biological assays. The effects correlated with a loss of dye release inducing activities on phosphatidylcholine vesicles and reduction of channel forming properties in lipid bilayers and were associated with modifications of membrane affinity rather than conformational changes of the peptides. The results indicate that proline at position 14 of the native peptide is essential for the interaction with different membrane systems.

Alamethicin, a 20-residue peptaibol, induces voltage-dependent ion channels in lipid bilayers according to the barrel-stave model. To study relationships between the proline-14-induced kink region and the channel-forming behavior of the peptide, a set of alamethicin analogs with proline incorporated at positions 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, and 17, respectively, as well as an analog with alanine instead of proline at position 14 were synthesized. Macroscopic conductance experiments show that the voltage dependence of the peptides is conserved although slightly influenced, but the apparent mean number of monomers forming the channels is significantly reduced when proline is not located at position 14. This is confirmed in single-channel experiments. The analogs with proline next to position 14 (i.e., 13, 15, 16) show stable conductance levels, but of reduced number, which follows the order Alam-P14 > Alam-P15 > Alam-P16 > Alam-P13. This reduction in the number of levels is connected with changes in the lifetime of the channels. Analogs with proline at position 11, 12, or 17 produce erratic, extremely short-lived current events that could not be resolved. The changes in functional properties are related to structural properties as probed by circular dichroism. The results indicate that proline at position 14 results in optimal channel activity, whereas channels formed by the analogs bearing proline at different positions are considerably less stable.