Peptoids

Peptoids are a class of compounds that have been developed with the aim of mimicking the properties of peptides by modifying the overall backbone structure. A fundamental theme in recent peptoid research is the connection between peptoid function and peptoid structure. In the first paper on the chemistry of peptoids as oligomeric peptidomimetics, Bartlett et al. reported the synthesis of peptoids using a synthetic strategy recalling the standard solid-phase peptide synthesis (SPPS). In efforts to expand the ability of peptoid sequences for selective molecular recognition through the introduction of constraints to rigidify peptoid structure, Kirshenbaum and collaborators reported the first X-ray crystallographic structures of peptoid hetero-oligomers, and observed that peptoids possess the capacity to form reverse-turn type secondary structures. This study focused interest towards macrocyclic peptoids resulting from head-to-tail cyclization, which proved to be very efficient using standard coupling chemistries for peptoid sequences consisting of at least five units.