Crosslinked amino acids

Provansal, M.M.P., Cuq, J.-L.A. and Cheftel, J.-C. (1975). Chemical and nutritional modifications of sunflower proteins due to alkaline processing. Formation of amino acid crosslinks and isomerization of lysine residues. J. Aqric. Pood Chem. 23, 938-943. 

In previous papers, we have (a) reviewed elimination reactions of disulfide bonds in amino acids, peptides, and proteins under the influence of alkali (5) (b) analyzed factors that may operate during alkali-induced amino acid crosslinking and its prevention (6) (c) demonstrated inhibitory effects of certain amino acids and inorganic anions on lysinoalanine formation during alkali treatment of casein, soy protein, wheat gluten, and wool and on lanthionine formation in wool ( 7, 9) (d) demonstrated that... 

Several selective interactions by MIP membrane systems have been reported. For example, an L-phenylalanine imprinted membrane prepared by in-situ crosslinking polymerization showed different fluxes for various amino acids [44]. Yoshikawa et al. [51] have prepared molecular imprinted membranes from a membrane material which bears a tetrapeptide residue (DIDE resin (7)), using the dry phase inversion procedure. It was found that a membrane which contains an oligopeptide residue from an L-amino acid and is imprinted with an L-amino acid derivative, recognizes the L-isomer in preference to the corresponding D-isomer, and vice versa. Exceptional difference in sorption selectivity between theophylline and caffeine was observed for poly(acrylonitrile-co-acrylic acid) blend membranes prepared by the wet phase inversion technique [53]. 

The structural versatility of pseudopoly (amino acids) can be increased further by considering dipeptides as monomeric starting materials as well. In this case polymerizations can be designed that involve one of the amino acid side chains and the C terminus, one of the amino acid side chains and the N terminus, or both of the amino acid side chains as reactive groups. The use of dipeptides as monomers in the manner described above results in the formation of copolymers in which amide bonds and nonamide linkages strictly alternate (Fig. 3). It is noteworthy that these polymers have both an amino function and a carboxylic acid function as pendant chains. This feature should facilitate the attachment of drug molecules or crosslinkers,... 

Fig. 15 Amino acid sequences of artificial extracellular matrix (aECM) proteins. Each protein contains a TV tag, a histidine tag, a cleavage site, and elastin-like domains with lysine residues for crosslinking. The RGD cell-binding domain is found in aECM 1, whereas aECM 3 contains the CS5 cell-binding domain. aECM 2 and aECM 4 are the negative controls with scrambled binding domains for aECM 1 and aECM 3, respectively. Reprinted from [121] with permission from American Chemical Society, copyright 2004...

A small number of proteins, and again insulin is an example, are synthesized as pro-proteins with an additional amino acid sequence which dictates the final three-dimensional structure. In the case of proinsulin, proteolytic attack cleaves out a stretch of 35 amino acids in the middle of the molecule to generate insulin. The peptide that is removed is known as the C chain. The other chains, A and B, remain crosslinked and thus locked in a stable tertiary stiucture by the disulphide bridges formed when the molecule originally folded as proinsulin. Bacteria have no mechanism for specifically cutting out the folding sequences from pro-hormones and the way of solving this problem is described in a later section. 

In the synthesis of polypeptides with biological activity on a crosslinked polymer support as pioneered by Merrifield (1 2) a strict control of the amino acid sequence requires that each of the consecutive reactions should go virtually to completion. Thus, for the preparation of a polypeptide with 60 amino acid residues, even an average conversion of 99% would contaminate the product with an unacceptable amount of "defect chains". Yet, it has been observed (13) that with a large excess of an amino acid reagent —Tn the solution reacting with a polymer-bound polypeptide, the reaction kinetics deviate significantly from the expected exponential approach to quantitative conversion, indicating that the reactive sites on the polymer are not equally reactive. 

Oxidative bleaching of wool is invariably carried out with hydrogen peroxide. The active species involved is likely to be the same as on cellulosic substrates but specific reactions with wool amino acid residues must be considered. The primary reaction is oxidation of cystine disulphide bonds leading to the formation of cysteic acid residues (Scheme 10.41). The rupture of disulphide crosslinks, with attendant increase in urea-bisulphite and alkali solubility values, adversely affects fibre properties. As the severity of bleaching conditions increases, the urea-bisulphite solubility remains little changed but the relationships between alkali solubility and cysteic acid (Figure 10.36) and between cystine and cysteic acid (Figure... 

Fujimoto, D., Horiuchi, K. and Hirama, M. (1981) Isotrityrosine, a new crosslinking amino-acid isolated from Ascaris cuticle collagen. Biochemical and Biophysical Research Communications 99, 637-643. 

Sakura, S. and Fujimoto, D. (1984) Absorbtion and fluorescence studies of tyrosine derived crosslinking amino acids from collagen. Photochemistry and Photobiology 40, 731-734. 

Formaldehyde fixes proteins in tissue by reacting with basic amino acids— such as lysine,5 7—to form methylol adducts. These adducts can form crosslinks through Schiff base formation. Both intra- and intermolecular cross-links are formed,8 which may destroy enzymatic activity and often immunoreactiv-ity. These formaldehyde-induced modifications reduce protein extraction efficiency and may also lead to the misidentification of proteins during proteomic analysis. 

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