The cyclopentapeptide CXCR4 antagonist FC131 (cyclo(-Arg 1 -Arg 2 -2-Nal 3 -Gly 4 -D-Tyr 5 -), 2; 2-Nal = 3-(2-naphthyl)alanine) represents an excellent starting point for development of novel drug-like ligands with therapeutic potential in HIV, cancer, stem-cell mobilization, inflammation, and autoimmune diseases. While the structure-activity relationships for Arg 1 , Arg 2 , and Gly 4 are well established, less is 10 understood about the roles of the aromatic residues 2-Nal 3 and D-Tyr 5 . Here we report further structureactivity relationship studies of these two positions, which showed that (i) the distal aromatic ring of the 2-Nal 3 side chain is required in order to maintain high potency, and (ii) replacement of D-Tyr 5 with conformationally constrained analogues results in significantly reduced activity. However, a simplified analogue that contained Gly instead of D-Tyr 5 was only 13-fold less potent than 2, which means that the 15 D-Tyr 5 side chain is dispensable. These findings were rationalized based on molecular docking, and the collective structure-activity data for the cyclopentapeptides suggest that appropriately designed Arg 2 -2-Nal 3 dipeptidomimetics have potential as CXCR4 antagonists.