Structure-activity relationships of enkephalins containing serially replaced thiomethylene amide bond surrogates.

An isomeric series of four leucine-enkephalin analogs containing the thiomethylene ether unit as an amide bond replacement in all positions have been prepared by solid phase methods. The resulting pseudopeptides divulged widely differing retentive behaviors on reversed phase high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). An analog containing the Phe psi[CH2S]Leu dipeptide replacement at the 4-5 position exhibited binding close to the parent, leucine enkephalin; its guinea pig ileum (GPI) activity was the highest of the analogs tested. Another compound, Tyr psi[CH2S]Gly1-2]-Leu-enkephalin, also displaced 3H-etorphine well in the binding assay, but caused increased contractions in the GPI assay at low concentrations. The Phe psi[CH2S]Leu results are not compatible with the necessity of a beta-turn structure for agonist activity in the GPI assay.