N,N'-di-tert-butoxycarbonyl-1H-benzotriazole-1-carboxamidine derivatives are highly reactive guanidinylating reagents.

By enhancing the leaving group character of benzotriazole via electron-withdrawing substituents such as the 5-chloro or 6-nitro derivatives with the related N,N'-di-tert-butoxycarbonyl-1H-benzotriazole-1-carboxamidines, highly efficient reagents are obtained for conversion of primary and secondary amines in solution and in solid phase to diprotected guanidines. [reaction: see text]

Synthesis of beta-(1-azulenyl)-L-alanine as a potential blue-colored fluorescent tryptophan analog and its use in peptide synthesis.

Acetyl-beta-(1-azulenyl)-D,L-alanine has been synthesized in high overall yield by the malonic ester condensation procedure, and the racemate has been enzymatically resolved with acylase I from Aspergillus melleus. The enantiomerically pure L-amino acid is of interest as a blue-colored fluorescent tryptophan analog. The bioactivity data of a heptagastrin analog containing it suggests that the planar aromatic azulene moiety may indeed mimic the tryptophan side chain to some extent, and the spectral properties of the azulene moiety makes beta-(1-azulenyl)-L-alanine of potential value as a UV and fluorescence probe in synthetic peptides, and possibly even in proteins if bioincorporation succeeds with chemically misacylated tRNAs.

Synthesis of bivalent inhibitors of eucaryotic proteasomes.

Based on the peculiar spatial array of the active sites in the internal chamber of the multicatalytic proteasome, as derived from the X-ray structure of yeast proteasome, homo- and heterobivalent inhibitors were designed and synthesized to exploit the principle of multivalency for enhancing inhibition potency. Peptidic bis-aldehyde compounds of the octapeptide size were synthesized to address adjacent active sites, whilst a PEG spacer with a statistical length distribution of 19-25 monomers was used to link two identical or different tripeptide aldehydes as binding heads. These bis-aldehyde compounds were synthesized applying both methods in solution and solid phase peptide synthesis. Bivalent binding was observed only for the PEG-spaced inhibitors suggesting that binding from the primed side prevents hemiacetal formation with the active site threonine residue.

Photomodulation of conformational states. Synthesis of cyclic peptides with backbone-azobenzene moieties.

The search for photoresponsive conformational transitions accompanied by changes in physicochemical and biological properties led us to the design of small cyclic peptides containing azobenzene moieties in the backbone. For this purpose, (4-aminomethyl)phenylazobenzoic acid (H-AMPB-OH) and (4-amino)phenylazobenzoic acid (H-APB-OH) were synthesized and used to cyclize a bis-cysteinyl-octapeptide giving monocyclic derivatives in which additional conformational restriction could be introduced by conversion to bicyclic structures with a disulphide bridge. While synthesis with H-AMPB-OH proceeded smoothly on a chlorotrityl-resin with Fmoc/tBu chemistry, the poor nucleophilicity of the arylamino group of H-APB-OH required special chemistry for satisfactory incorporation into the peptide chain. Additional difficulties were encountered in the reductive cleavage of the S-tert-butylthio group from the cysteine residues since concomitant reduction of the azobenzene moiety took place at competing rates. This difficulty was eventually bypassed by using the S-trityl protection. Side-chain cyclization of the APB-peptide proved to be difficult, suggesting that restricted conformational freedom was already present in the monocyclic form, a fact that was fully confirmed by NMR structural analysis. Conversely, the methylene spacer in the AMPB moiety introduced sufficient flexibility for facile and quantitative side-chain cyclization to the bicyclic form. Both of the monocyclic peptides and both of the bicyclic peptides are photoresponsive molecules which undergo cis/trans isomerization reversibly.

Bivalency as a principle for proteasome inhibition.

The proteasome, a multicatalytic protease, is known to degrade unfolded polypeptides with low specificity in substrate selection and cleavage pattern. This lack of well-defined substrate specificities makes the design of peptide-based highly selective inhibitors extremely difficult. However, the x-ray structure of the proteasome from Saccharomyces cerevisiae reveals a unique topography of the six active sites in the inner chamber of the protease, which lends itself to strategies of specific multivalent inhibition. Structure-derived active site separation distances were exploited for the design of homo- and heterobivalent inhibitors based on peptide aldehyde head groups and polyoxyethylene as spacer element. Polyoxyethylene was chosen as a flexible, linear, and proteasome-resistant polymer to mimic unfolded polypeptide chains and thus to allow access to the proteolytic chamber. Spacer lengths were selected that satisfy the inter- and intra-ring distances for occupation of the active sites from the S subsites. X-ray analysis of the proteasome/bivalent inhibitor complexes confirmed independent recognition and binding of the inhibitory head groups. Their inhibitory potencies, which are by 2 orders of magnitude enhanced, compared with pegylated monovalent inhibitors, result from the bivalent binding. The principle of multivalency, ubiquitous in nature, has been successfully applied in the past to enhance affinity and avidity of ligands in molecular recognition processes. The present study confirms its utility also for inhibition of multicatalytic protease complexes.

Bifunctional inhibitors of the trypsin-like activity of eukaryotic proteasomes.

BACKGROUND: The 20S proteasome is a multicatalytic protease complex that exhibits trypsin-like, chymotrypsin-like and post-glutamyl-peptide hydrolytic activities associated with the active sites of the beta2, beta5 and beta1 subunits, respectively. Modulation of these activities using inhibitors is essential for a better understanding of the proteasome's mechanism of action. Although there are highly selective inhibitors of the proteasome's chymotryptic activity, inhibitors of similar specificity have not yet been identified for the other activities. RESULTS: The X-ray structure of the yeast proteasome reveals that the sidechain of Cys118 of the beta3 subunit protrudes into the S3 subsite of the beta2 active site. The location of this residue was exploited for the rational design of bidentated inhibitors containing a maleinimide moiety at the P3 position for covalent linkage to the thiol group and a carboxy-terminal aldehyde group for hemiacetal formation with the Thr1 hydroxyl group of the active site. Structure-based modelling was used to determine the optimal spacing of the maleinimide group from the P2-P1 dipeptide aldehydes and the specificity of the S1 subsite was exploited to limit the inhibitory activity to the beta2 active site. X-ray crystallographic analysis of a yeast proteasome-inhibitor adduct confirmed the expected irreversible binding of the inhibitor to the P3 subsite. CONCLUSIONS: Maleoyl-beta-alanyl-valyl-arginal is a new type of inhibitor that is highly selective for the trypsin-like activity of eukaryotic proteasomes. Despite the reactivity of the maleinimide group towards thiols, and therefore the limited use of this inhibitor for in vitro studies, it might represent an interesting new biochemical tool.

Heterotrimeric collagen peptides containing functional epitopes. Synthesis of single-stranded collagen type I peptides related to the collagenase cleavage site.

Synthetic collagen peptides containing larger numbers of Gly-Pro-Hyp repeats are difficult to purify by standard chromatographic procedures. Therefore, efficient strategies are required for the synthesis of higher molecular weight collagen-type peptides. Applying the Fmoc/tBu chemistry, a comparative analysis of the standard stepwise chain elongation procedure on solid support with the procedure based on the use of the synthons Fmoc-Gly-Pro-Hyp(tBu)-OH and Fmoc-Pro-Hyp-Gly-OH was performed. The crude products resulting from the stepwise elongation procedure and from the use of Fmoc-Gly-Pro-Hyp(tBu)-OH clearly revealed large amounts of microheterogeneities that result from incomplete imino acid acylation as well as from diketopiperazine formation with cleavage of Gly-Pro units from the growing peptide chain. Conversely, by the use of the Fmoc-Pro-Hyp-Gly-OH synthon, the quality of the crude products was significantly improved; moreover, protection of the Hyp side chain hydroxyl function is not required using the Fmoc/tBu strategy. With this optimized synthetic procedure, relatively large collagen-type peptides were obtained in satisfactory yields as highly homogeneous compounds.

Synthesis, kinetic characterization and X-ray analysis of peptide aldehydes as inhibitors of the 20S proteasomes from Thermoplasma acidophilum and Saccharomyces cerevisiae.

A comparative kinetic characterization of the peptide aldehydes Ac-Leu-Leu-X-H [X = Trp, Tyr and Tyr(tBu)] and Z-Gly-Pro-Gly-Gly-Leu-Leu-Nle-H as inhibitors of the chymotryptic activity of 20S proteasomes from the archaebacterium T. acidophilum and yeast S. cerevisiae revealed significantly differentiated inhibitory potencies that can be rationalized on the basis of X-ray crystallographic data.

Chalcogen-analogs of amino acids. Their use in X-ray crystallographic and folding studies of peptides and proteins.

Using methionine-auxotrophic Escherichia coli strains quantitative biosynthetic replacement of the methionine residues by seleno- and telluromethionine but not by methoxinine was achieved in various model proteins, clearly indicating a limited tolerance in the editing range of methionyl-tRNA synthetase. For expression of the protein variants the acetyl derivatives of the chalcogen-analogs of methionine, obtained by a new and highly efficient synthetic procedure, proved to be the ideal source in the growth media as they were found to be significantly more stable than the underivatized methionine analogs. The conformational properties in solution, the folding and unfolding parameters as well as X-ray crystallographic data confirmed the highly isomorphous character of the atomic mutants and thus the usefulness of this concept in X-ray analysis of proteins. Quantitative replacement of cysteine residues by selenocysteine has recently been achieved using cysteine-auxotrophic E. coli strains, but a selective replacement of cysteine residues by employing the natural translational machinery of selenocysteine is also conceivable. We have therefore performed a detailed study on synthetic selenocysteine-peptides in order to determine the redox potential of this cysteine analog, and thus the ability of related peptide and protein analogs to undergo the correct oxidative folding. Since the redox potential of selenocysteine was found to be significantly more reducing than that of the parent amino acid, selective formation of a diselenide bridge in presence of additional cysteine residues is highly favored as well documented in the case of the synthetic bis-selenocysteine-endothelin I analog. These results confirm that even cysteine residues may represent an interesting target for the design and expression of isomorphous heteroatomic analogs of proteins.

Cyclodextrins as templates for the presentation of protease inhibitors.

Mono(6-succinylamido-6-deoxy)-beta-cyclodextrin was synthesized by classical carbohydrate chemistry and used as a template mono-functionalized with the linear, fully flexible 4C-spacer carboxylate for covalent linkage of the calpain inhibitor leucyl-leucyl-norleucinal. Spectroscopic analyses of the conjugate do not support a self-inclusion of part of the hydrophobic peptide tail, but confirm its intra- or intermolecular interaction with the template moiety that leads to full water solubility. The inhibitory potency of the beta-cyclodextrin/peptide aldehyde construct was compared with that of the parent Ac-Leu-Leu-Nle-H against cathepsin B and calpain. Despite the large size of the template the inhibition of cathepsin B was only slightly reduced in full agreement with the X-ray structure of this enzyme which shows full accessibility of the S-subsites. For this enzyme the 4C-spacer is apparently sufficient to guarantee optimal interaction of the peptide tail with the binding cleft. Conversely, for mu-calpain a significantly decreased inhibitory potency was obtained with the conjugate suggesting steric interference of the template in the binding process. These results show that the beneficial properties of the cyclodextrin template can be retained in conjugates with bioactive peptides if attention is paid to optimize in each case the size and nature of the spacer for optimal recognition of the grafted biomolecule.

Oxidative folding of cystine-rich peptides vs regioselective cysteine pairing strategies.

The methodology of regioselective cysteine pairings in synthetic multiple-cystine peptides has progressed in the past years to an efficiency that allows for at least three specific inter- and intrachain disulfide bridgings. Conformational studies on various multiple-cystine peptides like hormones, protease inhibitors, and toxins revealed that these bioactive peptides, generated by posttranslational processing of precursor proteins, are folded into miniprotein-like compact globular structures of remarkable stability. This strongly suggests protein domain or subdomain properties of these families of peptides, and thus sufficient sequence-encoded information for correct oxidative refolding under appropriate experimental conditions. From intensive research on the mechanisms and pathways of oxidative refolding of proteins in vivo and in vitro, the efficient methods have emerged for simulating nature in the regeneration of native folds not only for intact proteins, but also for protein domains and subdomains. In fact, the results obtained in the oxidative folding of excised protein fragments and of relatively low mass products of posttranslational processings show that this procedure is indeed a simple way of preparing peptides with several disulfide bonds, if optimization of reaction conditions is performed in terms of redox buffer, temperature, and additives capable of disrupting aggregates and of stabilizing nascent secondary structures. Moreover, with increased knowledge about stable, small natural cystine frameworks, their use instead of artificial templates should facilitate engineering of synthetic miniproteins with specific conformation and tailored functions.

Redox-active bis-cysteinyl peptides. I. Synthesis of cyclic cystinyl peptides by conventional methods in solution and on solid supports.

Cyclic mono-cystinyl active-site fragments of thioredoxin and thioredoxin reductase were synthesized as N-acetyl and C-amide octapeptides by conventional methods of peptide synthesis in solution and on solid supports. Using a side-chain protection based on acid-labile tert-butanol-derived groups and on the S-tert-butylthio unsymmetric disulfide for the thiol functions, in combination with N alpha-Z- or N alpha-Nps derivatives in the chain elongation steps, the synthesis in solution was carried out in straightforward manner yielding the fully protected octapeptides as well characterized compounds. Upon deprotection with trifluoroacetic acid and reduction of the unsymmetrical disulfides with tri-butylphosphine, the resulting bis-cysteinyl-octapeptides were oxidized in dimethylformamide with azodicarboxylic acid di-tert-butyl ester to produce the desired cyclic compounds in good overall yields. For the synthesis on solid supports a similar acid-labile side-chain protection was applied in combination with the N alpha 9-flourenylmethyoxycarbonyl derivatives in the chain elongation steps. Thereby acylations were performed with the related amino acid N-carboxyanhydrides (UNCAs) or by the O-(1H-benzotriazol-1-yl)-N,N,N',N'-tetramethyluronium-tetraf luoroborate/1- hydroxybenzotriazole (TBTU/HOBt) procedure. The solid phase synthesis of the two octapeptides led to unexpected difficulties in terms of recovery of peptidic material from the resins in the final acidolytic cleavage step as well as of racemization at the level of the cysteine residues by the TBTU/HOBt coupling method. Racemization was efficiently suppressed by employing the related pentafluorophenyl ester and this method led to crude octapeptide products of a degree of purity comparable to those obtained by the synthesis in solution. However, the recovery of the peptides from the resin, i.e., irreversible reattachment of cleaved peptidic material via alkylation of various side-chain functions, could not be avoided even using the most efficient scavengers or their cocktails.

Redox potentials of active-site bis(cysteinyl) fragments of thiol-protein oxidoreductases.

The active sites of thiol-protein oxidoreductases consist of the characteristic Cys-X-X-Cys motif, and the redox potentials of these enzymes reflect the propensity of the bis(cysteinyl) sequence portion for disulfide loop formation. Thereby, as is known from comparing the three-dimensional (3D) structures of thioredoxin and glutaredoxin in the reduced and oxidized state, reduction of the disulfide bond is accompanied by minimal perturbation of the backbone folding of the active sites. In order to estimate the sequence-dependent intrinsic free energy of formation of the active-site disulfide loops in oxidoreductases, synthetic fragments corresponding to the sequences 31-38, 10-17, 134-141, and 34-41 of thioredoxin, glutaredoxin, thioredoxin reductase, and protein disulfide isomerase (PDI), respectively, were analyzed for their tendency to form 14-membered rings. For this purpose thiol/disulfide exchange experiments, with glutathione as reference redox pair, were performed on the bis(cysteinyl) octapeptides. As the free energy of ring closure of linear peptides consists mainly of the free energy of formation of the disulfide loop with a defined geometry from a statistical ensemble of conformations of the bis(cysteinyl) peptides, the observed differences in the equilibrium constants, although relatively small (within a factor 10), suggest that sequence-dependent information for loop formation is retained in the excised active-site fragments. These inherent redox potentials are, however, significantly affected and/or amplified in the native proteins by the conformational restraints imposed by the "structural domains" on the "functional domains".

Synthetic immunogens. The effect of the conformational space on biological and immunological responses to dimeric hormone constructs.

Chimeras of the double chain bis-cystinyl hinge fragment 225-232/225'-232' of the human IgG1 and of peptides related to human little-gastrin were synthesized, whereby the fully bioactive gastrin sequences 2-17 and 5-17 were amide-bond-linked N- and N- or C-terminally, respectively, to the hinge peptide. All the dimeric constructs proved to be efficient immunogens; however, both the configuration of the constructs and the length of the haptenic gastrin molecule were found to drastically affect the specificity of the antibody response and, thus, the type of dominant immune epitope expressed. The different degree of accessibility of the gastrin chains in the dimers is similarly reflected by their binding affinities to gastrin receptors and their bioactivities in vivo. Molecular dynamics simulations of the chimeric compounds clearly revealed that the conformational space of the gastrin peptide chains 2-17 and 5-17 is strongly restricted upon linkage to the hinge peptide. Only in the gastrin-(2-17) construct does sufficient free conformational space seem to be retained, at least for one of the two gastrin chains, in order to allow folding into the bioactive structure. This also agrees with the observation that the dimeric gastrin-(2-17) behaves like a gastrin monomer in terms of receptor binding affinity and biopotency in vivo; but it could additionally explain why an antibody response of gastrin receptor-like specificity could only be induced with this construct. The experimental data may therefore suggest a high degree of parallelism between the mechanism of recognition of the gastrin peptides in the dimeric constructs as hormonal ligands by the gastrin receptors and as haptens by the immune competent cells.

Peptide hormone-membrane interactions: the aggregational and conformational state of lipo-gastrin derivatives and their receptor binding affinity.

The (2RS)-1,2-dipalmitoyl-3-mercaptoglycerol/-, (2RS)-1,2-dimyristoyl-3-mercaptoglycerol/-, and (2RS)-1-myristoyl-2-palmitoyl-3-mercaptoglycerol/maleoyl-bet a-alanyl- [Nle15]-human-gastrin-(2-17) adducts were prepared as lipo-gastrin derivatives of explicitly primary amphiphilic properties. As representative of this class of lipo-gastrins, the dimyristoyl derivative has been thoroughly characterized in its aggregational state since, among the three compounds, theoretically it should exhibit the lowest degree of lipid character. It aggregates in aqueous solution to form monodispersed unilamellar spherical vesicles with dislocation of the peptide moiety at the bilayer surface in predominantly unordered structure. The liposomes are remarkably stable toward solubilization with trifluoroethanol and toward vesicle to micelle transition with neutral and negatively charged surfactants even above their critical micellar concentrations. Asymmetric fusion with the detergent micelles induces polydispersion of the liposomes in terms of shape and size without affecting in significant manner the mode of display of the gastrin portions at the bilayer surface. Only the positively charged hexadecyltrimethylammonium hydroxide provokes the collapse of the vesicles into mixed micelles with concomitant altered dislocation of the gastrin-peptide in the new aggregational state. Despite the lipid properties of the gastrin derivatives, i.e., formation of liposomes, they retain remarkable receptor affinities (IC50 = 1.5 x 10(-9) M for myristoyl-palmitoyl-gastrin, IC50 = 2.0 x 10(-9) M for di-myristoyl-gastrin and IC50 = 3.1 x 10(-9) M for di-palmitoyl-gastrin vs IC50 = 2.8 x 10(-10) M for Nle15-gastrin). Since the displacement of radiolabeled Nle15-gastrin from rat pancreatic acinar cell line membrane preparations by both the parent gastrin hormone and the three lipo-gastrins occurs in parallel manner, the data support a mechanism of receptor occupancy via accumulation of the gastrins at the membrane surface and their two-dimensional diffusion to the target receptor. Thereby the differentiated decrease of affinity in function of fatty acid chain length has to be attributed to the energetically more or less favored transfer of the monomers from the donor vesicles to the acceptor membranes. Moreover, according to this model migration of the lipo-gastrins with their interdigitating di-fatty-acyl moieties should be delayed, again in lipid structure-dependent manner, in comparison to the parent gastrin molecule, which is free to float in the membrane interfacial phase.

N alpha-trifluoroacetylation of N-terminal hydroxyamino acids: a new side reaction in peptide synthesis.

In the synthesis of the double-chain bis-cystinyl hinge fragment 225-232/225'-232' of the human IgG1, which contains two N-terminal threonine residues, the final acidolytic deprotection step, with 99% aqueous trifluoroacetic acid, was accompanied by formation of remarkable amounts of an unknown side product. This has been identified as the N alpha-mono-trifluoroacetylated product; however, even bis-trifluoroacetylation was found to occur by prolonged exposure of the parallel dimer to the reaction medium. Similarly, the model compounds H-Thr(tBu)-Phe-OH, [Boc-Thr(tBu)-Cys-OH]2 and Boc-Thr(tBu)-Cys(StBu)-Ala-OH were acylated by treatment with trifluoroacetic acid at rates that suggest a rather pronounced sequence dependency. Since, on the other hand, the model compound [Boc-Ala-Cys-OH]2 was not trifluoroacetylated at all under identical conditions, the reaction has to proceed prevalently via intermediate formation of the trifluoroacetyl ester of N-terminal hydroxyamino acids, followed by O-->N shift according to the hydroxyoxazolidine mechanism. The experimental data indicate also that under favored conditions aminolysis of the trifluoroacetyl ester via an inter- or intramolecular pathway may contribute to the overall reaction rate.

Alkylation of histidine with maleimido-compounds.

Introduction of the maleimide function via a spacer into histidine-containing peptides was found to produce ring closure by nucleophilic addition of the Nim-imino function of the histidine side-chain to the activated double bond of the maleimide. As an intramolecular cyclization reaction it proceeds at remarkably higher rates than the bimolecular alkylation of histidine derivatives with N-ethyl-maleimide. Correspondingly, in the case of the histidine-peptides examined only mixtures of the cyclic isomeric compounds were isolated and structurally characterized by 1H-NMR analysis. As expected, prevention of this reaction in histidine-containing maleoyl-peptides can be achieved by Nim-protection of the imidazole group. However, upon removal of this protection, the reaction takes place again, thus remarkably hampering the usefulness of the maleimide/thiol addition principle in conjugate chemistry for peptides. On the other hand this reaction could represent an interesting new approach for the design of cyclic peptidomimetic analogs.

Aziridine-2-carboxylic acid. A reactive amino acid unit for a new class of cysteine proteinase inhibitors.

The three-membered ring of aziridine-2-carboxylic acid, which is susceptible to opening by nucleophiles, has been analyzed as a potential useful handle for the design of specific irreversible inhibitors of cysteine proteinases. For this thiol-reactive amino acid, an imino analogue of proline, a second-order rate constant of 17.07 M-1.s-1 for inactivation of papain was determined. Thus, the aziridine moiety proved to be remarkably more reactive than activated double bonds, e.g. N-ethylmaleimide, or halides such as alpha-iodopropionic acid or chloroacetic acid. Since it does not alkylate histidine under conditions in which quantitative alkylation occurs with N-ethyl-maleimide, it could represent an interesting reactive amino acid unit for the synthesis of a new class of irreversible inhibitors, at least in terms of specificity of the chemical reaction involved in the inactivation process.

Synthesis of neo-glycosylated L-alanyl-D-isoglutamine derivatives as potential immunoadjuvants.

The synthesis is described for muramyl-dipeptide-related amphiphilic analogs, where 1,10-diaminodecane served as a lipophilic C-terminal linker for the preparation of a bidentated L-alanyl-D-isoglutamine derivative and incorporation of aldonic and uronic acids at the N-termini as hydrophilic cores. For the N-acylation steps via lactones, suitable conditions were elaborated to allow for the use of unprotected or minimally protected aldonic and uronic acid lactones, respectively. These procedures may represent a useful general approach for the synthesis of neoglycopeptides.

Fully synthetic immunogens. Part III. Synthesis of hinge-peptide/gastrin conjugates and their immunological properties.

As core molecule for the multiple attachment of antigenic peptides we have selected the human IgG1 hinge fragment 225-232/225'-232'. Two types of conjugates of this double-chain bis-cystinyl hinge-peptide were prepared i) by linking its C-termini to [NIe15]-human-little-gastrin-[2,17] and ii) by elongating the resulting hinge-peptide/[NIe15]-little-gastrin-[2-17] conjugate at the two N-termini with the human big-gastrin sequence 1-14 to produce the big-gastrin-[1-14]/hinge-peptide/little-gastrin-[2-17] conjugate. For the synthesis of these peptide structures both the route via the preformed double-chain bis-cystinyl peptide and the route via suitably protected monomeric bis-cysteinyl peptides were used. For the latter approach advantage was taken of the previous observation about the preferred oxidation of the bis-cysteinyl hinge-peptide 225-232 to the dimer in parallel alignment. Both synthetic routes led to identical products. Immunization experiments in guinea pigs with the synthetic hybrids led to surprisingly strong immune responses with anti-little-gastrin antibody titers comparable to those induced by the iso-1-cytochrome c/little-gastrin-[2-17] conjugate as carrier-hapten system. These findings show that the two gastrin constructs are fully competent immunogens. Additionally, the gastrin receptor-like specificity of the antibodies indicates that both the synthetic hybrids and the cytochrome c conjugate allow for expression of a little-gastrin-specific conformational epitope similar to the bioactive structure of this hormone. The usefulness of such synthetic hybrids is further confirmed by the observation that the bivalent immunogen, containing both the little-gastrin 2-17 and the big-gastrin 1-14 sequence, is capable of inducing an immune response against both antigenic sequences, although with different efficiency. These results fully confirm our expectations.