Recognition of flexible peptides in water by transition metal complexes

[GRAPHICS] This paper describes the design, synthesis, and evaluation of transition me tal complexes capable of recognizing flexible histidine-containing peptides in aqueous medium (25 mM HEPES buffer, pH = 7.0, 25 degrees C). When the p attern of metal ions on a complex matches with the pattern of histidine moi eties on the peptide, strong interaction (K = 1.2 x 10(6) M-1) can be achie ved. The complex was highly selective (>200:1) in discriminating similar fl exible peptides differing only by one glycine unit.