Gunasekera, Sunithi, Foley, Fiona M., Clark, Richard J., Sando, Lillian, Fabri, Louis J., Craik, David J., and Daly, Norelle L. (2008) Engineering stabilized vascular endothelial growth factor-A antagonists: synthesis, structural characterization, and bioactivity of grafted analogues of cyclotides. Journal of Medicinal Chemistry, 51 (24). pp. 7697-7704.

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Abstract

Cyclotides are plant derived mini-proteins with compact folded structures and exceptional stability. Their stability derives from a head-to-tail cyclized backbone coupled with a cystine knot arrangement of three-conserved disulfide bonds. Taking advantage of this stable framework we developed novel VEGF-A antagonists by grafting a peptide epitope involved in VEGF-A antagonism onto the stable cyclotide framework. Antagonists of this kind have potential therapeutic applications in diseases where angiogenesis is an important component of disease progression, including cancer and rheumatoid arthritis. A grafted analogue showed biological activity in an in vitro VEGF-A antagonism assay at low micromolar concentration and the in vitro stability of the target epitope was markedly increased using this approach. In general, the stabilization of bioactive peptide epitopes is a significant problem in medicinal chemistry and in the current study we have provided insight into one approach to stabilize these peptides in a biological environment.

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