Chemical and biomimetic total syntheses of natural and engineered MCoTI cyclotides

Abstract

The naturally-occurring cyclic cystine-knot microprotein trypsin inhibitors MCoTI-I and MCoTI-II have been synthesised using both thia-zip native chemical ligation and a biomimetic strategy featuring chemoenzymatic cyclisation by an immobilised protease. Engineered analogues have been produced containing a range of substitutions at the P₁ position that redirect specificity towards alternative protease targets whilst retaining excellent to moderate affinity. Furthermore, we report an MCoTI analogue that is a selective low-µM inhibitor of foot-and-mouth-disease virus (FMDV) 3C protease, the first reported peptide-based inhibitor of this important viral enzyme.