Macrocyclization enhances affinity of chemokine-binding peptoids.

Peptoids that bind to protein targets can be selected from one-bead-one-compound libraries. Macrocyclization has been often used to increase conformational rigidity and binding affinity in both peptides and peptoids. Here we describe a combined strategy to label and cyclize hexameric peptoid sequences previously identified in a screen against the inflammatory chemokine interleukin-8/CXCL8 that is involved in a number of inflammatory diseases. Cyclization can be performed on-bead in the presence of side-chain protecting groups so that this strategy can be applied to a large variety of sequences. The affinity of the resulting tetramethylrhodamine-labeled macrocyclic peptomers to CXCL8 is increased by at least 1 order of magnitude compared to the original linear sequences.