Modified peptide and peptide libraries with protease resistance,

Abstract

Peptoids are provided which are polymers comprised of monomer units wherein the monomer units include least some substitute amino acids and may include conventional amino acids. The peptoids can be synthesized in large numbers so as to provide libraries of peptoids which can be screened in order to isolate peptoids of desired biological activity. Although the peptoids may include amino acids, they preferably include only substituted amino acids and are designed in a manner so as to have a particular biological activity. Certain peptoids are designed to mimic as closely as possible the activity of known proteins. Other peptoids are designed so as to have greater or lesser activity than known proteins and may be designed so as to block known receptor sites and/or elicit a desired immunogenic response and thereby act as vaccines. In that the peptoids are comprised of substitute amino acids they can be designed to have structures which natural proteins cannot conform to. A range of different amino acid substitutes are disclosed, as are their methods of synthesis and methods of using such amino acid substitutes in the synthesis of peptoids and peptoid libraries. Methods of screening the libraries in order to obtain desired peptoids of a particular biological activity are also disclosed. The peptoids are preferably linked to a pharmaceutically active drug forming a conjugate with increased binding affinity to a particular biological receptor site.