Peptide historical perspective

Our coverage includes bacterial, plant and animal toxins and we focus mainly on the period from approximately 2003 onwards, with some early examples also included for historical perspective, or for completeness in defining the scope of structures determined. For the examples we describe in more depth, there is an emphasis on studies from our laboratory, but these are illustrative of a wide range of studies from other laboratories. Our laboratory has had a particular interest in peptides that have head-to-tail cyclised backbones and so a number of the examples fit this theme. 

In 1985, Houghten [11] used this method in his tea bag approach described in section 3.4.4.2 of this chapter. As an elemental synthesis unit, instead of individual resin beads, he used small batches of resin packed into a polypropylene mesh. Furka [12,13] described the split/pool methodology for the synthesis of peptides. The peptides were cleaved and analyzed as mixtures and separated by HPLC as a rapid method for multiple peptide synthesis. In his work, Furka did not suggest explicitly to cleave individual compounds from individual beads. This seemingly obvious idea was recognized by Lam [14,15]. Split/pool synthesis was further developed and widely used by many others working in-the field of combinatorial chemistry [16]. The new Journal of Combinatorial Chemistry published a very interesting historical perspective on the major events in this field [17],... 

By necessity, the present chapter has provided only a brief and selective overview of historical perspectives and the current state of the art of stepwise and convergent SPPS. There can be little doubt about the enormous impact and power of solid-phase synthetic methodologies for studying important problems in peptide science. 

Constantino HR, Liauw S, Mitragotri S, et al.. The pharamaceutical development of insulin historical perspectives and future directions. In Shahrokh Z, Sluzky V, Cleland JL, et al., Eds. Therapeutic protein and peptide formulation and delivery. American Chemical Society Symposium Series, Washington DC, American Chemical Society 1997 675 29-66. 

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