Solid-phase peptide synthesis steps

The major disadvantage of solid-phase peptide synthesis is the fact that ail the by-products attached to the resin can only be removed at the final stages of synthesis. Another problem is the relatively low local concentration of peptide which can be obtained on the polymer, and this limits the turnover of all other educts. Preparation of large quantities (> 1 g) is therefore difficult. Thirdly, the racemization-safe methods for acid activation, e.g. with azides, are too mild (= slow) for solid-phase synthesis. For these reasons the convenient Menifield procedures are quite generally used for syntheses of small peptides, whereas for larger polypeptides many research groups adhere to classic solution methods and purification after each condensation step (F.M. Finn, 1976). 

The actual process of solid phase peptide synthesis outlined m Figure 27 15 begins with the attachment of the C terminal ammo acid to the chloromethylated polymer m step 1 Nucleophilic substitution by the carboxylate anion of an N Boc protected C terminal... 

FIGURE 27 14 A section of polystyrene showing one of the benzene rings modified by chloromethylation Indi vidual polystyrene chains in the resin used in solid phase peptide synthesis are con nected to one another at various points (cross linked) by adding a small amount of p divinylbenzene to the styrene monomer The chloromethylation step is carried out under conditions such that only about 10% of the benzene rings bear —CH2CI groups... 

Memfield successfully automated all the steps m solid phase peptide synthesis and computer controlled equipment is now commercially available to perform this synthesis Using an early version of his peptide synthesizer m collaboration with coworker Bemd Gutte Memfield reported the synthesis of the enzyme ribonuclease m 1969 It took them only SIX weeks to perform the 369 reactions and 11 391 steps necessary to assemble the sequence of 124 ammo acids of ribonuclease... 

Solid phase peptide synthesis does not solve all purification problems however Even if every coupling step m the ribonuclease synthesis proceeded in 99% yield the product would be contaminated with many different peptides containing 123 ammo acids 122 ammo acids and so on Thus Memfield and Gutte s six weeks of synthesis was fol lowed by four months spent m purifying the final product The technique has since been refined to the point that yields at the 99% level and greater are achieved with current instrumentation and thousands of peptides and peptide analogs have been prepared by the solid phase method... 

The polymeric resin used for Merrifield solid-phase peptide synthesis (Section 26.8) is prepared by treating polystyrene with iV-(hydroxymethyl) phthalimide and trifluoromethanesulfonic acid, followed by reaction with hydrazine. Propose a mechanism for both steps. 

Redox-sensitive resin 24 designed for solid-phase peptide synthesis (SPPS) [29] was prepared from commercially available 2,5-dimethylben-zoquinone in seven steps [30] and loaded to a support via a Wittig reaction. Release of the peptide occurs using two sequential mild conditions, reduction with NaBH4 followed by TBAF-catalyzed cyclic ether formation (Scheme 8) which provide orthogonality to acid sensitive reactions. 

Macke recently introduced a monoreactive DOTA prochelator (4,7,10-tricarboxymethyl-tert-butyl ester A, A, A", A "-tetraazacyclododecane-1 -acetate), which was coupled to Tyr3—Lys5 (BOQ-octreotide via solid-phase peptide synthesis. A one-step deprotection reaction generated the bioactive compound DOTATOC in about 65% yield.142 The 90Y and 177Lu DOTATOC complexes have shown promise for the treatment of neuroendocrine tumors in early clinical trials.143,444... 

Finally, dendrimers have been synthesized using solid phase peptide synthesis resins, wherein the core is linked to the resin and the half-dendrimer (dendron) is built out from it in sequential steps (Marsh et al., 1996 Swali et al., 1997 Wells et al., 1998). The advantage of this method... 

HL Ball, G Bertolini. A-(Chlorobenzyloxycarbonyloxy)succinimide as a terminating agent for solid-phase peptide synthesis application to a one-step purification procedure. Lett Pept Sci 2, 49, 1995. 

Moreover, if the average yield per step decreases only slightly, let us say down to 85%, the overall yield of the convergent synthesis is still quite acceptable -37%-, but now the overall yield of the linear synthesis would be only 0.004%. It is clear, therefore, that for polypeptides of any complexity and for proteins, linear syntheses in solution are not practicable even if the yields of each step are kept high. However, solid-phase peptide synthesis can be quite efficient. This is because solid-phase synthesis represents an improvement in linear methodology which has, as yet, not found an equivalent in convergent methods [17]. 

Modern combinatorial chemistry involves a number of steps that begin with the creation of a library of molecules that are closely related in structure. The library can be created in two ways (a) parallel synthesis, which is simultaneous synthesis of numerous products in separate discrete reaction vessels (b) combinatorial synthesis, of numerous reactions within one single reaction vessel followed by separations. The initial successes in parallel synthesis have been in solid peptide synthesis of proteins, which was based on Merrifield s solid-phase peptide synthesis. 

When solid-phase peptide synthesis was initially being developed, the question of whether or not a separate neutralization step is necessary was considered. Since it was known from the work of others that the chloride ion promotes racemization during the coupling step in classical peptide synthesis, and since we were deprotecting the Boc group with HC1, it seemed advisable to neutralize the hydrochloride by treatment with TEA and to remove chloride by filtration and washing. This short, additional step was simple and convenient and became the standard protocol. Subsequently, we became aware of three other reasons why neutralization was desirable (1) to avoid weak acid catalysis of piperazine-2,5-dione formation, 49 (2) to avoid acid-catalyzed formation of pyroglutamic acid (5-oxopyr-rolidine-2-carboxylic acid), 50 and (3) to avoid amidine formation between DCC and pro-tonated peptide-resin. The latter does not occur with the free amine. 

In preparing these various libraries, extensive use is made of solid phase synthetic methods. These methods are all derived from the solid phase peptide synthesis (SPPS) method developed by Merrifield in 1963. When performing a large number of syntheses, it is preferable to perform the synthetic steps on a solid bead rather than completing the entire synthesis in the solution phase. The solid-phase technique makes byproduct removal and final compound purification easier. The organic chemistry literature contains a wealth of different types of solid-phase supports and novel linkers for attaching the synthetic substrate to the bead. 

The oxazolidine-2,5-dione heterocycle, perhaps better known as the N-carboxyanhydride of an amino acid, has been incorporated employing a modification of chloromethylated poly(styrene) (192) (76USP3985715). The reaction sequence involved utilization of a masked amino acid, ethyl acetamidocyanoacetate (205). The amino acid was liberated in a subsequent hydrolysis/decarboxylation step (Scheme 98). The cyclized, IV-carboxyanhydride-functional resins (206) were reported to be useful in solid phase peptide synthesis and as supports for enzyme immobilization. 

Esters of the PAM linker are slightly more resistant towards acids than the corresponding 4-alkylbenzyl esters [5,25-27] (Table 3.1). The PAM linker is particularly well suited for solid-phase peptide synthesis using A-Boc amino acids because less than 0.02% cleavage of the peptide from the support occurs during the acidolytic deprotection steps [27], Esters of both the 4-alkylbenzyl alcohol and PAM linkers can also be cleaved by nucleophiles (see Sections 3.1.2 and 3.3.3). 

Solid-phase peptide synthesis is based on the sequential addition of protected amino acids onto an insoluble support. Addition proceeds from carboxy terminus to amino terminus. The first amino acid is attached to a solid support by a linker and, if necessary, side-chain amino acid function is protected throughout chain assembly. The carboxy group of the in-coming, acylating amino acid is activated for coupling while its amino group is protected temporarily for each coupling step and then deprotected for the next cycle. The... 

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