Synthesis and study of normal, enantio, retro, and retroenantio isomers of cecropin A-melittin hybrids, their end group effects and selective enzyme inactivation.

In our effort to understand the structural requirements for the antimicrobial activity of cecropin A (CA) and melittin (M), we synthesized the normal, enantio, retro and retroenantio hybrid analogs; we related activity to their sequence, chirality, amide bond direction (helix dipole) and end group charges. To compare the effect of the end groups, each of these analogs was synthesized both with an acid and an amide C-terminus and also with and without an N alpha-acetyl N-terminus. The all-L- and all-D-enantiomers of several cecropin-melittin hybrids were previously found to be equally potent against several bacterial species, and no chiral effect was observed. This general rule has now been confirmed and extended. However, two exceptions have been found. All-L-CA(1-13)M(1-13) acid was 5 times and 9 times less potent than the all-D-analog, respectively, toward gram-positive Staphylococcus aureus and gram-negative Pseudomonas aeruginosa. All-L-CA(1-7)M(2-9) acid was 5 times and 14 times less active against S. aureus and P. aeruginosa, respectively, than its all-D acid isomer. The corresponding D- and L-retro analogs differed only marginally. A role for proteolytic enzymes has been implicated as a cause for these differences in the activities of L- and D-enantiomers. In all cases, blocking the alpha-amine by acetylation had no significant effect on potency. The retro and retroenantio analogs of CA(1-13)M(1-13) acid were as potent as their normal and enantio analogs against all the test bacteria. The C-terminal amides also showed similar potency against four test bacteria. It should be noted that the negative end of the helix dipole of a normal peptide points toward the C-terminus, whereas it points away in the case of a retro derivative when viewed in the direction of the normal sequence.