peptides are implicated in a wide variety of biochemical processes in humans and other mammals. There are, for example, many known peptidal inhibitors of mammalian enzymes. The design of peptide mimics which are resistant to degradation by proteolytic enzymes has become of increasing interest to peptide chemists. A primary goal has been reduce the susceptibility of mimics to cleavage and inactivation by peptidases while maintaining certain desired biological, chemical, and/or physical properties of a targeted peptide. As a result, the design and synthesis of non-peptidal peptidomimetics has emerged as an enterprise spanning organic, bioorganic, and medicinal chemistry. Frequently, the design and/or synthetic considerations which attend development of peptide mimics are not easily resolved.
There remains a need in the art for metabolically stable chemical compounds which effectively mimic the biological, chemical, and/or physical properties of naturally-occurring or synthetic peptides, particularly those peptides having activity as enzyme inhibitors.