The initial transfer of a complex glycan in protein N-glycosylation is catalyzed by oligosaccharyltransferase (OST), which is generally a multisubunit membrane protein complex in the endoplasmic reticulum but a single-subunit enzyme (ssOST) in some protists. To investigate the reaction mechanism of ssOST, we recombinantly expressed, purified and characterized the STT3A protein from Trypanosoma brucei (TbSTT3A). We analyzed the in vitro activity of TbSTT3A by synthesizing fluorescently labeled acceptor peptides as well as lipid-linked oligosaccharide (LLO) analogs containing a chitobiose moiety coupled to oligoprenyl carriers of distinct lengths (C10, C15, C20 and C25) and with different double bond stereochemistry. We found that in addition to proline, charged residues at the +1 position of the sequon inhibited glycan transfer. An acidic residue at the −2 position significantly increased catalytic turnover but was not essential, in contrast to the bacterial OST. While all synthetic LLO analogs were processed by TbSTT3A, the length of the polyprenyl tail, but not the stereochemistry of the double bonds, determined their apparent affinity. We also synthesized phosphonate analogs of the LLOs, which were found to be competitive inhibitors of the reaction, although with lower apparent affinity to TbSTT3A than the active pyrophosphate analogs.

Redesigning linear cell penetrating peptides (CPPs) into a multi-branched topology with short dipeptide branches gave cell penetrating peptide dendrimers (CPPDs) with higher cell penetration, lower toxicity and hemolysis and higher serum stability than linear CPPs. Their use is demonstrated by delivering a cytotoxic peptide and paclitaxel into cells.

Two 6750-membered one-bead-one-compound peptide dendrimer combinatorial libraries L (X(4))(8)(LysX(3))(4)(LysX(2))(2)LysX(1) (X(1-4) = 14 different amino acids or deletion, Lys = branching lysine residue) and AcL (with N-terminal acetylation) were prepared by split-and-mix solid phase peptide synthesis. Screening toward fluorogenic substrates for esterase and aldolase activities using the in silica off-bead assay (N. Maillard et al., J. Comb. Chem. 2009, 11, 667-675) and bead decoding by amino acid analysis revealed histidine containing sequences active against fluorescein diacetate. Isobutyryl fluorescein, a related hydrophobic fluorogenic substrate, was preferentially hydrolyzed by dendrimers from library AcL containing hydrophobic residues such as AcH3 (AcHis)(8)(LysLeu)(4)(LysVal)(2)LysLysOH, compared to simple oligohistidine peptides as reference catalysts. Polycationic dendrimers from library L with multiple free N-termini such as H8 (His)(8)(LysβAla)(4)(LysThr)(2)LysaProNH(2) (aPro = (2S,4S)-4-aminoproline) showed stronger reactivity toward 8-acetoxypyrene-1,3,6-trisulfonate with partial acylation of N-termini. These experiments highlight the role of noncatalytic amino acids to determine substrate selectivity in peptide dendrimer esterase models.

Fluorescence screening of a 96-membered SPOT library of histidine containing dendritic and linear peptides revealed the remarkable esterolytic activity of short histidine oligomers that show catalytic proficiencies within one order of magnitude of histidine-containing esterase peptide dendrimers.

Substrate arrays for measuring enzyme activity fingerprints can be conveniently formulated as cocktails designed such that the reaction products can be separated and quantified by analytical high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). Fingerprinting of lipases and esterases, an important class of microbial enzymes, is reported with a cocktail of only five substrates as a practical fingerprinting reagent. An unusually strong C4-esterase activity was thus revealed in a recently discovered microbial esterase.