Reaction medium engineering in enzymatic peptide fragment condensation: synthesis of eledoisin and LH-RH.

The influence of different reaction systems on alpha-chymotrypsin-catalyzed synthesis of eledoisin and LH-RH peptides from (7 + 4) and (5 + 5) fragments was investigated. The peptide yield was determined in the following systems: buffered aqueous media, frozen solutions, organic media, and cosolvent mixtures. The experimental set up was tailored to allow the screening of an array of conditions with minimum consumption of peptide fragments (2.1 and 2.5 mM). The best yields (22% yield for eledoisin and 68% yield for LH-RH) were obtained in buffered aqueous solutions. It was found that the choice of buffer had a strong influence on the peptide yield; boric-borate and ammonium acetate buffers at pH 9, gave the best results. In buffered aqueous systems, both syntheses were scaled up by using a 10-fold increase in fragment concentration (21 and 25 mM). Under these conditions the yields rose to 57% and 80% of eledoisin and LH-RH, respectively. Moreover, during the synthesis of eledoisin and in the presence of boric-borate buffer pH 9, the peptide precipitated from the reaction medium preventing a secondary hydrolysis and facilitating the in situ product purification.

Mutagenic contaminants in synthetic peptides obtained by an azide coupling.

Hormone-like peptides are, almost by definition, not mutagenic. It was, therefore, unusual to find that some batches of peptides synthesized by azide coupling were mutagenic in the Ames test. One of these peptides, eledoisin, showed mutagenic activity particularly in Salmonella typhimurium TA 1535 without metabolic activation. This activity was independent of the peptide purity determined by HPLC and a dose response relationship was observed at concentrations over the solubility limit of the peptide in the assay medium. We therefore suggested that the mutagenic effect might be due to the presence of chemically undetectable, water-soluble impurities, which could be removed by counter-current distribution. If, however, the same final coupling was carried out by the mixed anhydride procedure, no mutagenic activity was observed. Consequently, we considered that the mutagenicity detected was due to traces of hydrazoic acid salts arising during azide formation in the coupling step. In fact only the product of the coupling reaction between the pivotal intermediates was mutagenic.

[Synthesis of cyclic and cyclically branched tachykinin partial sequences. 1. Synthesis of the homodet-cyclic eledoisin(6-11)-hexapeptide]. / Synthese cyclischer und cyclisch-verzweigter Tachykinin-Teilsequenzen. Teil 1: Darstellung des homodet-cyclischen Eledoisin(6-11)-Hexapeptides.

Ala-Phe-Ile-Gly-Leu-Met has been disengaged by cyclization of H-Leu-Met-Ala-Phe-Ile-Gly-OH by means of dicyclohexylcarbodiimide/N-Hydroxysuccinimide or the adequate p-nitrophenylester. Acc. to various strategic variants, the design of the linear precursor has been performed by condensation of the segments of Boc-Leu-Met-OH and H-Ala-Phe-Ile-Gly-OH. The resulting cyclo-[Eledoisin(6-11)-Hexapeptide] has in a clearly separated range of dose dual agonistic and antagonistic effects at the guinea-pig ileum.

A new type of tachykinin binding site in the rat brain characterized by specific binding of a labeled eledoisin derivative.

A new ligand for investigating tachykinin-binding site subtypes was synthesized by coupling the 125I-Bolton and Hunter reagent to eledoisin (125I-BHE). Using a synaptosomal preparation (P2 fraction) of rat cerebral cortex, 125I-BHE was shown to bind with apparent high affinity (apparent Kd = 15.3 nM). When concentrations of up to 30 nM 125I-BHE were used, 125I-BHE binding was specific, saturable, reversible, and temperature-dependent. In contrast to [3H]dopamine, 125I-BHE was not taken up within synaptosomes by an ouabain-sensitive process. Eledoisin, kassinin, and substance P were examined for their ability to inhibit specific 125I-BHE binding to cortical synaptosomes. Eledoisin and kassinin were considerably more potent than substance P, in contrast to the order of potency observed for specific 125I-Bolton-Hunter substance P (125I-BHSP) binding. Specific 125I-BHE binding was highest in the cerebral cortex and hypothalamus; intermediate in the hippocampus, striatum, and thalamus; low in the mesencephalon, septum, and substantia nigra; and absent in the cerebellum. Comparison of these data with those previously obtained for 125I-BHSP binding to synaptosomes indicated that 125I-BHE-labeled binding sites differ markedly from those of 125I-BHSP-labeled binding sites. Therefore, tachykinin receptors other than substance P receptors seem to be present in the central nervous system.

Synthesis and hypotensive activity of some analogs of the C-terminal hexapeptideamide of eledoisin.

The C-terminal (6-11)-hexapeptideamide Ala-Phe-Ile-Gly-Leu-Met-NH2 of eledoisin was synthesized by the solid phase method according to Merrifield. The alpha-amino group of alanine was acylated with heterocyclic or aromatic residues. These new compounds showed dose dependent hypotensive activities in the rabbit.