Peptide destabilization by two adjacent D-amino acids in single-stranded amphipathic alpha-helices.

We recently described the local destabilizing effect of systematic double D-amino acid replacements for characterization of amphipathic helices in peptides. The objective of this study was to determine the destabilizing effect of two adjacent D-amino acids incorporated into the center of a single-stranded amphipathic alpha-helix by hydrogen exchange and guanidine hydrochloride denaturation studies in trifluoroethanol (TFE)/water. Data from guanidine hydrochloride titration experiments in the presence of 30% TFE suggest that double D-amino acid replacements at the center of the helix destabilize the secondary structure by 4.5 kJ/mol. While the exchange rate for one backbone proton was found to vary by a factor of 10 at the replacement position, the remaining backbone protons are not markedly influenced by double D-amino acid replacement. These results confirm the hypothesis that the energy of -4.5 kJ/mol per residue is a major contribution to the stability of helical peptides in water and in solvent mixtures of TFE/water.