Determination of Lipophilic Character of a Series of Dermorphin-Related Oligopeptioes by Means of Reversed-Phase HPLC

Abstract

In recent times there has been a growing interest in the determination of chromatographic parameters of lipophilicity with regard to their use in the study of quantitative structure-activity relationship (1, 2). Very good correlations had been shown between the chromatographic parameters and the log P or π values as a measure of the partition coefficient between octanol and water (2). The reversed phase TLC R_m values in two different chromatographic systems and the reversed-phase HPLC log k′ values of a series of dermorphin-related oligopeptides have been previously determined (3, 4). The purpose of the present work was to study the relationship between log k′ values on one hand and R_m or ^Σπ values on the other one in view of QSAR studies. In fact the discovery of enkephalin and endorphins with high affinities for opioid receptors added new dimensions to the study of structure-activity relationship of opioid agonists (5, 6, 7, 8).