Solid Phase Synthesis of Peptides With Carboxyl-Terminal Amides

The present invention relates to the utilization of .alpha.,.beta.-unsaturated amino acids such as dehydroalanine in the solid phase synthesis of peptides wherein said unsaturated acids fill the roll of establishing the link to the solid support. Also, on release the presence of the unsaturated amino acids provides a modus for incorporation of carboxyl terminal amides in the peptide chain. .alpha.,.beta.-unsaturated amino acids suitable for utilization in the present invention include dehydroalanine, dehydrobutyrine (.beta.-methyldehydroalanine), dehydroserine, dehydroleucine, dehydrophenylalanine, dehydrotryptophan, dehydroarginine, dehydroproline, dehydrovaline, and dehydrocysteine (cf. Handbook of Biochemistry, 2d Edition, Silber, ed., The Chemical Rubber Co., Cleveland, Ohio, 1970, page B-50). The stability of the .alpha.,.beta.-unsaturated amino acid is improved by N-acylation or N-amino acylation and the utilization of acyl derivatives such as Boc (tert-butyloxycarbonyl) and related compounds is preferred (cf. E. Gross. Handbook of Biochemistry, page B-50, above).

General Prior Art

1. R. B. Merrifield, "Solid-Phase Peptide Synthesis," Advances in Enzymology, 32, 1969, 221-295.

2. Bodanszky and Ondetty, Peptide Synthesis, Interscience Wiley, 1967.

3. Stewart and Young, Solid-Phase Peptide Synthesis, W. H. Freeman and Co., San Francisco, 1969.

Specific Prior Art

1. E. Gross, et al, Angewandte Chemie, 12, August 1973, pages 664-665 (English Edition).

2. E. Gross, et al, Angewandte Chemie, 85, January 1973, pages 672-673 (German Edition).

3. E. Gross and J. L. Morell, J. Amer. Chem. Soc., 93, 4634 (1971).

4. E. Gross et al, Proc. Nat. Acad. Sci USA, 62, 952 (1969).

5. E. Gross in J. Meienhofer, Chemistry and Biology of Peptides, Proceedings of the 3rd American Peptide Symposium, Ann Arbor Science Publishers, Ann Arbor, Michigan, 1972, page 671.

Merrifield, ante, at page 223 defines solid-phase peptide synthesis as follows, "solid-phase peptide synthesis is based on the idea that a peptide chain can be assembled in a step-wise manner while it is attached at one end to a solid support. With the growing chain covalently anchored to an insoluble particle at all stages of the synthesis, the peptide will also be completely insoluble, and furthermore it will be in a suitable physical form to permit rapid filtration and washing."

The present invention follows the format of the prior art as to solid-phase peptide synthesis with the exception of utilization of .alpha.,.beta.-unsaturated amino acids as the link to the support and the utilization of an aqueous release agent as opposed to the conventional organic for the reaction of the double bond with water and consequent production of a terminal carboxy amide product.

The solid-phase synthesis has been again described by Stewart et al, page 3 (ante), as a "special case of stepwise synthesis of peptides from the C-terminus (the carboxyl end of the peptide). The linkage of the C-terminal amino acid to the resin is, in effect, a substituted benzyl ester, and the chemistry of solid-phase synthesis is essentially that used in the step-wise synthesis of a peptide benzyl ester in solution."

An insoluble polymeric support is conventional in the solid-phase peptide syntheses and a preferred polymer is a copolymer of styrene of 2 percent divinylbenzene (DVB) in bead form which has been further modified by chloromethylation. Also utilizable is an insoluble hydroxy methyl resin or polymer (Stewart et al, page 9, ante).

The solid support above is made to react with the carboxyl group of the .alpha.,.beta.-unsaturated amino acid in such a way that the amino acid is bound covalently to the polymer. During this step the amine group of the amino acid is covered or protected or blocked with a protecting group as, for example, with a Boc group (t-butyloxycarbonyl) so that the amine will not react with the polymer. Also utilizable as a protecting group is carbobenzoxy (benzyloxycarbonyl) (cf. Stewart et al, page 13, ante) and t-amyloxycarbonyl group (cf. Stewart et al, page 16, ante). The blocking or protecting group is selected so that it can be removed without damage to the bond holding the amino acid to the support. After removal of this protecting group, a second N-protected amino acid can be caused to acylate the exposed amine group of the first amino acid, thus forming the first peptide bond. At each stage, to assist in the linking of the support to the first amino acid, in this case .alpha.,.beta.-unsaturated amino acid, a coupling agent is utilized. A preferred coupling agent is DCC (dicyclohexylcarbodiimide).

Historically, the preferred cleavage reagent has been organic consisting of 1 N HCl in glacial acetic acid but due to the equivalent amount of water to starting amine necessary for the formation of the peptide amide, the release agent in this case becomes aqueous rather than organic and results in the simultaneous removal of the peptide from the solid support and the conversion of the .alpha.,.beta.-unsaturated amino acid to amide and keto acid.

The present method has advantages over other methods for the synthesis of peptide amides by being applicable under milder conditions and free from undesirable side reactions. Further, .alpha.,.beta.-unsaturated amino acids, such as dehydroalanine and dehydrobutyrine have been found to be constituents of naturally occurring peptides, nisin and subtilin. These exemplary unsaturated amino acids are formed under conditions of .beta.-elimination and formation of the double bond from corresponding saturated acid. Further, the biologically active tripeptide pyroglutamylhistidylproline amide (thyrotropin-releasing factor, TRF) was synthesized (see below) utilizing a substituted dehydroalanine linking agent.

As exemplary of the synthesis utilized, the .alpha.,.beta.-unsaturated amino acid dehydroalanine H.sub.2 C=CNHR--COOH, R = acyl or aminoacyl, may be employed in various ways in the solid phase synthesis of peptides. It may, for instance, act as vehicle for the attachment of peptides to insoluble supports and/or donate its nitrogen to amide groups. The latter occurs under acidic conditions in the presence of equimolar ratios of water and may be invoked once the desired number of amino acid residues has been added to the growing peptide chain. ##EQU1##

The model peptide leucylalanylglycine amide and the thyrotropin-releasing factor (TRF), pyro-L-glutamyl-L-histidyl-L-proline amide (L-5-oxo-2-pyrrolidinylcarbonyl-L-histidyl-L-prolinamide) were synthesized in order to test the utility of this novel route to peptide amides.

Boc-glycyldehydroalanine (Boc = tert-butyloxycarbonyl) [m.p. 157.degree.-159.degree.C, decomp., .lambda..sub.max (CH.sub.3 OH) = 241 nm (.epsilon.= 5560); Gly 1.00; NH.sub.3 1.03], prepared in 84% yield from Boc--glycyl--O--tosylserine methyl ester by .beta.-elimination, was coupled to the chloromethylated (1.25 mmol Cl/g) styrene-2% divinylbenzene copolymer in dimethylformamide in the presence of triethylamine (40.degree.C; 48 h) to give the peptide resin (1a) (0.41 mmol Boc--dipeptide/g).

Boc-leucylalanylglycyldehydroalanine resin (1b) was obtained after two successive cycles of solid phase synthesis with Boc--amino acids under the reaction conditions given in Example 7. Treatment of (1b) in the presence of 1 equivalent of water with 1 N hydrogen chloride in glacial acetic acid for 30 min at 50.degree.C resulted in

a. the cleavage of the dehydroalanine residue with formation of the amide (2a) and the pyruvyl resin (3);

b. the simultaneous removal of the Boc-protecting group from the H.sub.2 N-terminus.

Leucylalanylglycine amide (2a) was solidified by trituration in ethyl ether. Crystallization from methanol/ethyl ether gave a product (91% yield) which showed single spots and the given R.sub.f values upon thin layer chromatography on silica gel in the following solvent systems: A 0.14, B 0.62, C 0.35; Gly 1.00, Ala 0.98, Leu 1.00, NH.sub.3 0.98. Elemental analysis gave the expected values.

Boc-prolyldehydroalanine [.mp. 154.degree.-156.degree.C; .lambda..sub.max (CH.sub.3 OH) = 240 nm (.epsilon. = 5,300); Pro 1.00, NH.sub.3 1.01], obtained in 59% yield from Boc--prolyl--O--tosylserine methyl ester under the conditions of .beta.-elimination, was coupled (25.degree.C; 48 h) to the chloromethylated (2.3 mmol Cl/g) styrene-2% divinylbenzene copolymer as described for (1a) to give the Boc-prolyldehydroalanine resin (1c) (0.51 mmol of Boc-dipeptide/g).

Boc-pyroglutamylhistidylprolyldehydroalanine resin (1d) was synthesized according to the procedure given for (1b) using Boc--amino acids in the coupling steps.

Pyroglutamylhistidylproline amide (TRF) (2b) was isolated after treatment of (1d) with 1 equivalent of water in 1 N hydrogen chloride in glacial acetic acid as specified for (2a). A minor contamination was removed by partition chromatography on silica gel in the solvent system chloroform/methanol = 1:1. The purified tripeptide amide (TRF) gave single spots and the given R.sub.f values upon thin layer chromatography in the following solvent systems: A 0.03, B 0.46, D 0.27, E 0.27; Glu 1.00, Pro 1.02, His 0.99, NH.sub.3 1.00; [.alpha.].sub.D.sup.20 = -45.1 (c 0.25 glacial acetic acid); yield 63%.

The biological activities of (2b) and another sample of synthetic TRF (Abbott Laboratories, North Chicago, Illinois) were compared in the mouse bioassay. Potency estimates and 95% confidence limits (C.L.) were calculated by the methods of Brownlee (Statistical Theory and Methodology in Science and Engineering, John Wiley, 1960, page 294) and Finney (Statistical Methods in Biological Assay, Charles Griffin, London, 1964, page 370), respectively. One nanogram of TRF synthesized on the dehydroalanine resin was equivalent to 1.2 nanograms (95% C.L. 0.67-2.20 ng) of the reference preparation.

Boc-amino acids and DCC were used in fivefold excess.

Tfa = trifluoroacetic acid

Net.sub.3 = triethylamine

Boc = tert-butyloxycarbonyl

Dcc = dicyclohexylcarbodiimide

Aa = amino acid

The experimental protocol above is similar to that shown in Stewart et al, ante, entitled "Schedule A for Solid Phase Peptide Synthesis Diimide Coupling," at page 38.