Fine‐tuning the π–π Aromatic Interactions in Peptides: Somatostatin Analogues Containing Mesityl Alanine

Going through the motions: Somatostatin analogues having greater conformational rigidity than somatostatin have been prepared by substituting Phe residues in the native sequence with mesityl alanine (Msa; see structure). The analogues show high affinity for SSTR receptors, thus showing that fine-tuning of noncovalent interactions between amino acid side chains can modulate peptide affinity and selectivity.