The importance of the methionine configuration in for-Met-Leu-Phe-OMe biological activities

for-D-Met-L-Leu-L-Phe-OMe was synthesized in order to understand the import ance of the methionine configuration on human neutrophil biological activit y. Our results show that both chemotactic response and lysozyme release are lower than those of the parent fMLP-OMe, indicating that the specific rece ptor pocket possesses a well-located, restricted positive area that does no t completely face the D-Met residue. The triggering of superoxide anion pro duction does not seem to be sensitive to this variation of the configuratio n, (C) 2000 Academic Press.