Chemogenomics with peptide secondary structure mimetics.

There is increasing evidence that redox regulation of transcription, particularly activator protein-1 (AP-1) and nuclear factor kappa B (NF-kappaB), is important in inflammatory diseases. Human thioredoxin (TRX), a member of the oxidoreductase superfamily, was initially identified, as a factor which augments the production of interleukin-2 receptor alpha (IL-2R alpha) in human T-cell lymphotropic virus type 1 (HTLV-1) infected patient T-cells. Substrates for the redox activity of TRX bind the active site cleft in extended strand structure. The rapid generation of high numbers of peptide secondary structure mimetics through solid-phase synthesis is a key technology for the identification of pharmaceutical leads based on such protein-peptide interactions. In this manuscript, we describe a chemogenomic approach utilizing an extended strand templated library to develop small molecule inhibitors to validate oxidoreductase molecular targets in a murine asthma model.