Zinc complexes of amino acids and peptides .6. Zinc complexes of oligopeptides containing histidine at both termini

One tripeptide, five tetrapeptides, and one pentapeptide, all containing His-X(n)-His sequences and being blocked at the N and C termini with acyl and amide functions, respectively, were synthesized by solid-phase methods. With one exception their reaction with various zinc salts led to the precipitation of 1:1 (zinc/peptide) complexes. Analytically pure compounds were obtained from zinc tetrafluoroborate and His-Gly-His (1), from zinc chloride (resp, bromide) and His-Gly-Gly-His (2), His-Ala-Gly-His (3), His-Leu-Gly-His (4), His-Pro-Gly-His (5), and His-Pro-Asn-His (6) as well as from zinc sulfate and His-Leu-Gly-His (4) and His-Ala-Pro-Gly-His (7). H-1-NMR data, when available, indicate the coordination of both histidine units to zinc in all cases. The low solubility of the complexes points to their polymeric nature. The only 1:2 (zinc/peptide) complex in this series was obtained from zinc perchlorate and His-Gly-Gly-His (2). An EXAFS study revealed that it contains zinc symmetrically coordinated by four histidine imidazole ligands. Based on the available information it is proposed that all complexes are one-dimensional polymers containg [-Zn-His-X(n)-His-Zn-](x) backbones.