Biological Properties of Poly-α- Amino Acids

Abstract

Publisher Summary This chapter attempts to summarize the biological properties of poly-α-amino acids. The data already available indicate that these synthetic polypeptides may be of considerable value in the elucidation of the mode of action of known proteolytic enzymes, in the search for new proteolytic enzymes, and in the clarification of the inhibition of enzymes by macromolecules. It reviews that the close resemblance between the antibacterial and antiviral properties of basic polyamino acids with those of some natural peptides indicates that both the synthetic model compounds and the natural materials may act biologically by a similar mechanism. Also promising are the results obtained in the investigation of the immunological properties of synthetic poly-cu-amino acids and of polypeptidyl proteins, since they may contribute to the understanding of the chemical basis of the antigenicity of proteins. Finally, it is worth mentioning that water-soluble poly-a-amino acids represent one of the few types of synthetic polymers whose biological activity has been investigated in some detail. The extension of such studies to other synthetic water-soluble polymers may, perhaps, lead to the finding of new specific biological reagents. The chapter concludes that it should be stressed that the great value of synthetic poly-α-amino acids as protein models lies in their simplicity relative to the complexity of the natural proteins. Thus, many physical, chemical, and biological properties can be studied, as it were, in isolation by using such synthetic polypeptides. It should be remembered that this same simplicity imposes a limit on the usefulness of these substances, since certain properties, at least, of proteins may derive from a complexity of sequence and structure not found in the synthetic models.