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Alpha helices are useful scaffolds to build biologically active peptides. The intrinsic stability of an alpha-helix is a key feature that can be successfully designed, and it is governed by the constituting amino acid residues. Their individual contributions to helix stability are given, according to Lifson-Roig theory, by their w parameters, which are known for all proteinogenic amino acids, but not for non-natural ones. On the other hand, non-natural, conformationally-restricted amino acids can be used to impart biochemical stability to peptides intended for in vivo administration. Efficient design of peptides based on these amino acids requires the previous determination of their w parameters. We begin here this task by determining the w parameters of two restricted analogs of alanine: (alpha-methyl)alanine and 1-aminocyclopropanecarboxylic acid. According to their w values (alpha-methyl)alanine is almost as good a helix forming residue as alanine, while 1-aminocyclopropanecarboxylic acid is, similarly to proline, a helix breaker.

The early stages of the thermal unfolding of apoflavodoxin have been determined by using atomistic multi microsecond-scale molecular dynamics (MD) simulations complemented with a variety of experimental techniques. Results strongly suggest that the intermediate is reached very early in the thermal unfolding process and that it has the properties of an “activated” form of the native state, where thermal fluctuations in the loops break loop-loop contacts. The unrestrained loops gain then kinetic energy corrupting short secondary structure elements without corrupting the core of the protein. The MD-derived ensembles agree with experimental observables and draw a picture of the intermediate state inconsistent with a well-defined structure and characteristic of a typical partially disordered protein. Our results allow us to speculate that proteins with a well packed core connected by long loops might behave as partially disordered proteins under native conditions, or alternatively behave as three state folders. Small details in the sequence, easily tunable by evolution, can yield to one or the other type of proteins.