Hydrophobic side-chain interactions in a family of dimeric amide foldamers-potential alpha-helix mimetics

A series of new alpha-helix mimetics based on a benzamide scaffold and potentially able to disrupt protein-protein interactions have been synthesized and characterized by X-ray analysis. Inspection of the solid state structures of aromatic amide dimers confirmed that the molecules adopt a curved conformation with intramolecular H-bonding between the amide NH and the alkoxy oxygen of the neighboring aromatic fragment (dNH…O ∼ 2 Å). Adjacent dimer molecules are prone to form supramolecular assemblies due to both hydrophobic alkyl side-chain/side-chain interactions and intermolecular H-bonding.