Recent development in peptide coupling reagents

Two decades of domination of benzotriazole-based chemistry stimulated the progress in peptide synthesis to a high level of effectiveness. However, the growing need for new and more complex peptide structures, particularly for biomedical studies and, very recently, for the large-scale production of peptides as drugs, required manufacturing peptide products by efficient synthetic strategies, at reasonably low prices. Therefore, the search for new, more versatile and low-cost reagents becomes a great challenge. Several comprehensive review articles summarized the great effort undertaken, but up to now, no versatile coupling reagent useful for both amide and ester bond formation, as well as for solution and solid-phase peptide synthesis has been yet developed. The most-widely used coupling reagents are carbodiimides on one hand and phosphonium and aminium salts on the other. Herein in this review article, we summarized the recent development in peptide coupling reagents during the last two decades.     

Highly efficient synthesis of peptides by rational utilization of novel coupling reagents

The efficiency of different peptide coupling reagents, including carbodiimides, HOBt or HOAt-derived uronium, phosphoni-um and immonium salts, halouronium, halophosphonium, 2-halopyridinium and 2-halothiazoliuim salts, was evaluated. The synthetic strategy for coded peptides andnonribosomal peptides was discussed with an emphasis on the rational selection of peptide coupling reagents.     

Facile synthesis of aliphatic isothiocyanates and thioureas on solid phase using peptide coupling reagents

Peptide coupling reagents can be used as versatile reagents for the formation of aliphatic isothiocyanates and thioureas on solid phase from the corresponding solid-phase anchored aliphatic primary amines. The formation of the thioureas is fast and highly chemoselective, and proceeds via formation of the intermediate isothiocyanate. The isothiocyanate and subsequent thiourea formation take place under standard peptide coupling conditions using carbon disulfide as the ‘amino acid’. The thioureas are released from the resin and isolated in moderate to high yields.     

A novel peptide from Apis mellifera and solid-phase synthesis of its analogue

A novel peptide designated secapin-1,was purified and characterized from Apis mellifera.The molecular weight of 25 amino acid peptide secapin-1 was found to be 2821.5625 Da by ESI-FTICR-MS.It showed high identity to secapin.The sequence of secapin-1 was determined to be YIINVPPRCPPGSKFVKNKCRVIVP by automatic Edman degradation.A disulfide bond was formed between Cys⁹ and Cys²⁰ residues.In addition,an analogue of secapin-1 was synthesized by solid phase peptide synthesis method.The synthesis product was successfully purified and identified to homogeneity by using a combination of SEC,IEC,and RP-HPLC techniques.     

HPLC enantioseparation of amino acids and their protected derivatives used in peptide synthesis with pre-column chiral derivatization

Summary Indirect chiral separation methods based on enantiomeric derivatizations were developed in order to monitor optical purity of uncoded amino acids and a new series of amino acid derivatives. Marfey's reagent was used for derivatization of amino groups: whilst boxyl groups were derivatised with (1R, 2R)-or (1S, 2S)-2-amino-1(4-nitrophenyl)-1,3-propanediol reagents were used, respectively. The separations of diastereomeric derivatives formed via derivatization were optimized in RP-HPLC and NP-HPLC systems. Presented at Balaton Symposium on High Performance Separation Methods, Siófok, Hungary, September 1–3, 1999     

The concept of internal solubilization in peptide synthesis: ethylene glycol-based protecting groups

A novel, ethylene glycol-based protecting group is designed and synthesized for use in solid phase peptide synthesis. Ether and ester type protected amino acids are prepared. The acid stability of the new protecting group showed complete Fmoc/t-Bu compatibility. The new derivatives are tested in solid phase peptide synthesis, with a ‘difficult’ sequence to examine the disruption of peptide aggregation.     

Functionalization of C60 via organometallic reagents

The reaction of [60]fullerene with organolithium and Grignard reagents carrying orthoester, acetal or other end groups yielded adducts 3-5 at the 6-6 bond of C60 after quenching with trifluoroacetic acid. The adducts could be easily methylated or benzylated with methyl iodide or benzyl bromide in the presence of potassium tert-butoxide to yield exclusively the 1,4-disubstituted C60 6 and 7a,b. Cleavage of the orthoester, acetal and silylether groups gave the corresponding carboxylic acid 9, aldehydes 10a,b and 11 and alcohols 12 and 13a,b. The carboxylic acid 9 readily reacted with alanine ethyl ester under standard peptide coupling conditions to give 14 in 55% yield. Attempts to generate a silyl enol ether from the reaction of aldehyde 10b with TIPSOTf and triethylamine failed. Instead the reaction led to a cyclized ether 16a (or alcohol 16b in the absence of silylating agent) resulting from the addition of an initially formed fulleride anion to the aldehyde group. The corresponding acetal 4b reacted similarly. The reaction of aldehyde 10b with aniline also gave a cyclized product 19. Surprisingly, aldehyde 11, which no longer carried an acidic fullerene proton reacted with aniline to give a product 20 resulting from an intramolecular Diels-Alder reaction followed by aromatization of a primarily formed N-phenylimine. Alcohol 13b could be readily converted to the corresponding bromide using tetramethyl-α-bromoenamine. The bromide was reacted with the carbanion derived from the protected glycine derivative to yield the diastereomeric fullerene amino acid derivatives 1-benzyl-4-[α-propyl-tert-butylglycinate benzophenone imine] 1,4-dihydro[60]fullerenes 24a and 24b.     

Peptide synthesis using pentafluorophenyl diphenylphosphate (FDP) as coupling reagent

Comparison of the reaction speed and yield with its analogues and some conventional peptide coupling reagents, pentafluorophenyl diphenylphosphate (FDP) was shown to be a more preferable "active ester" type reagent for the peptide synthesis. The synthesis of oligopeptides using FDP was achieved with high yields. The influences of several reaction parameters such as solvent, base, additive and temperature on the coupling reaction were studied using HPLC method. The degree of racemization with FDP determined by HPLC or Young test was shown to be lower than that of DCCI. Octapeptide Gly-Cys(Bzl)-Ser-Gly-Lys-Leu-Ile-Cys(Bzl)-OH, corresponding to the amino acid sequence of gp41 of HIV-1, was successfully synthesized by 5+3 approach using FDP with high yield.     

Apply peptide C-terminal semicarbazides to peptide segment coupling using transfer active ester condensation technology

Peptide C-terminal semicarbazides are used as the starting materials in transfer active ester condensation technology to prepare HOCt active esters intermediates, which react with other peptide segments or reagents to afford long chain peptides, branch peptides and peptide C-terminal derivatives. The semicarbazido derivatives afford reliable results and avoid side reactions efficiently.     

Synthesis of N,N-dimethyl-2,4-dinitro-5-fluorobenzylamine and its reactions with amino acids and peptides

A practical synthesis is described for N,N-dimethyl-2,4-dinitro-5-fluorobenzylamine (DMDNFB) and its -d₆ analog as an alternative Sanger's reagent (DNFB), for purposes of amino acid derivatization detectable by positive mode electrospray ionization mass spectrometry. DMDNFB is comparable to DNFB in its efficiency to derivatize amino acids and peptides. Various DMDNP (d₀/d₆) derivatives of (modified) lysine were synthesized to evaluate the potential use of isotope-edited LC-ESI-MS as a tool for structural definition of the posttranslational modification of protein-based lysines.     

Novel polymer-supported coupling/dehydrating reagents for use in organic synthesis

Two novel dehydrating reagents and, based on a phosphonium anhydride and an oxyphosphonium triflate respectively, were prepared by reaction of the corresponding polymer-supported phosphine oxides with triflic anhydride. Reagent, based on the novel phosphorus heterocycle 1,1,3,3-tetraphenyl-2-oxa-1,3-diphospholanium bis(trifluoromethanesulfonate), was found to be a useful reagent for ester and amide formation. A wide range of coupling/dehydration-type reactions, such as ester, amide, anhydride, peptide, ether and nitrile formation, were performed in high yield using the more readily prepared polymer-supported triphenylphosphine ditriflate, which was easily recovered and re-used several times without loss of efficiency. With primary alcohols, both reagents and provide an alternative to the Mitsunobu reaction, where the use of azodicarboxylates and chromatography to remove the phosphine oxide by-product can be avoided. The use of 4-dimethylaminopyridine allowed the esterification of secondary alcohols with to proceed in high yield but with retention of configuration.     

New and efficient synthesis of solid-supported organotin reagents and their use in organic synthesis

Novel resin-bound organotin reagents have been prepared, including for the first time resin-bound dimethyl tin reagents. Mild methodology has also been developed for the very efficient synthesis of resin-bound distannanes. The resin-bound tin chloride reagents have been used in a catalytic Stille coupling cycle and the resin-bound distannanes have been used in atom transfer cyclisations and proved to be much more effective than previously described resin-bound distannanes. As expected the use of resin-bound tin reagents facilitated their easy removal at the end of the reaction, and consequently residual tin levels in the organic products were low or negligible. The resin-bound distannanes could not, however, be successfully used for the palladium catalysed stannylation of a simple aryl iodide, which would have provided a useful approach to radiolabeling of aromatic substrates. The reasons for the failure in the stannylation process is unclear but crystal structure evidence indicates that there is a hypervalent interaction between the resin-bound tin atom and an adjacent ether oxygen which may effect the reactivity of the tin intermediates in the stannylation sequence.     

Recent progress in the development of derivatization reagents having a benzofurazan structure

Chemical derivatization is often used to enhance the detectability of the target compounds and to improve the separation efficiency in high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). In this review, we describe the recent progress in the development of derivatization reagents having a benzofurazan structure, namely, the fluorogenic reagents, water-soluble reagents, reagents for the analysis of peptides and proteins, and reagents for mass spectrometric detection. The application of these reagents to bio-samples is also briefly described.     

Nickel(0)-catalyzed diastereoselective three-component coupling of 1,3-dienes, aldehydes, and organometallic reagents: influence of organometallic reagents on diastereoselectivity

A nickel-catalyzed diastereoselective alkylative three-component coupling of 1,3-diene and aldehyde with organoboron or organosilicon reagents has been realized. The diastereoselectivity was dramatically changed depending on the class of organometallic reagents. The reaction using ArB(OH)₂ in the presence of PPh₃ afforded 1,3-syn-substituted 4-penten-1-ol derivative as a single diastereomer. On the other hand, the coupling reaction with tetraorganosilicon reagent using NHC as a ligand under similar conditions exclusively produced the corresponding 1,3-anti isomer.     

Separation of some amino acids by supercritical fluid chromatography after a pre-derivatization step with classical reagents

Summary The separation of polar compounds by supercritical fluid chromatography is a difficult problem to solve. In this work, we have used a pre-derivatization method to obtain apolar or less polar compounds. Amino acids have been chosen as model polar compounds of biological interest, and 9-fluorenylmethyl chloroformate (FMOC) and (+)-1-(9-fluorenyl)ethyl chloroformate (FLEC) have been used as derivatizating reagents.With this procedure, the amino acids studied have been separated in less than 40 minutes with a good efficiency. Furthermore, with FLEC reagent, the enantiomeric separation was rapid in comparison with liquid chromatography techniques and the selectivities obtained were in the same order of magnitude.     

Recent developments in peptide macrocyclization

Cyclic peptides have been widely applied in fields ranging from drug discovery to nanomaterials. After years of development, the preparation of peptide macrocycles, especially late-stage macrocyclization of peptides, remains challenging using traditional synthetic methods. This digest highlights recent developments in the synthesis of cyclic peptides.     

Rapid Determination of Enantiomeric Excess of Tert-Butoxycarbonyl (BOC-Protected) Amino Acids Based on Infrared Spectra Technique with Optimal Wavelet Packet Transform Decomposition Frequency Band

A method was employed to determine enantiomeric excess (ee) value of chiral tert-butoxycarbonyl (Boc-protected) amino acids in a rapid way by using an infrared spectroscopy technique combined with wavelet packet transform (WPT) and least squares support vector machines (LS-SVM). Infrared spectral data were decomposed by using WPT algorithm. Simulated annealing (SA) algorithm was then used to search the optimal decomposed frequency band that had the greatest contribution to the quantitative analysis of ee values. As a result, the band (7, 34) with 34 variables and the band (5, 1) with 116 variables were determined as the optimal ones for the determination of Boc-protected proline and alanine, respectively. The selected variables in the optimal band were used as the inputs of LS-SVM models. The spectral variables selected by the WPT-SA method had lower predicting errors than full range spectra and the spectral variables selected by some traditional variable selection methods. Reasonable good results with root mean-square error of prediction (RMSEP) of 7.51 and 3.80 were obtained for the determination of ee values of two Boc-protected amino acids, showing that it is possible to rapidly determine ee values of amino acids by using IR spectroscopy rapidly.