Apis group Amino acids, Peptidomimetics, peptides, protein InteractionS group

Breaking down and building up alpha-synuclein: An insight on its N-terminaldomain

Alpha-synuclein (αSyn) is a small presynapticprotein (14kDa) that is involved insynucleinopathies including Parkinson’sdisease (PD). In itsnativestate, theαSynmonomerexistsinanunfoldedstate,anditsfoldingishighlydependentonvariationsof environmental conditions,mutations and interactionswithendogenous and/orexogenousmolecules. Recently, there is increasingevidence for adirect interplaybetweenαSynandmicrotubules(MTs),whosedefectsarelinkedtoneurodegenerativediseases, suchasPD.Understanding thecorrelationbetweenαSynandMTscouldbefundamental forthecorrectcomprehensionoftheundergoingmechanismsofPD.Hence,wechemicallysynthesizeda library of...

Stereochemical Behavior of Pyrrolo-Pyrazole Peptidomimetics Promoting Phase-Selective Supramolecular Organogels

Supramolecular gels were developed by taking advantage of an assembly of small dipeptides containing pyrrolo-pyrazole scaffolds. The dipeptides were prepared through a robust and ecofriendly synthetic approach from the commercially available starting materials of...

Exploitation of Dimeric Cyclic Cysteine as Helix Inducer in Ultra-Short Peptides for Cu(II)-Catalyzed Asymmetric Michael Addition on Chalcones

A dimeric cyclic cysteine analogue, i.e. (1R,1’R,2R,2’R)-2,2’-disulfanediylbis (aminocyclohexane-1-carboxylic acid), was used as a constrained unnatural amino acid and as a folding inducer in ultra-short Leu-Val-containing peptide. Our results showed that both free dimer amino...