Cover Picture: Structural Basis of Bcl‐xL Recognition by a BH3‐Mimetic α/β‐Peptide Generated by Sequence‐Based Design (ChemBioChem 13/2011)

Abstract

The cover picture shows representations of death‐inducing BH3 peptides in complex with the anti‐apoptotic protein Bcl‐xL. Of the four structures, three are naturally occurring BH3 peptides comprising only α‐amino acids. However, one of them is a designer α/β‐peptide containing β‐amino acid residues distributed periodically throughout the sequence. (Question: Can you spot the difference?) Such unnatural backbones are less susceptible to enzymatic degradation than their α‐peptide counterparts, thus making them more appealing for use in biological systems. The structure described by S. H. Gellman, W. D. Fairlie et al. on p. 2025 ff. demonstrates that side chains from this α/β‐peptide successful..