Sugar-modified Foldamers as Conformationally Defined and Biologically Distinct Glycopeptide Mimics

Abstract

To fold or not to fold?: That the conformational preferences of foldamer backbones might be modulated by appended sugars and also that such effects might inform on the roles of glycans on the preferred secondary structures adopted by their natural glycopeptide counterparts, is the intriguing question posed. We demonstrate in this study that attached sugars do indeed play a defining role in the conformations adopted by a pair of novel SAA-derived foldamers in water and that these differences are reflected in the contrasting interactions of these glycofoldamers with various biological targets.