Abstract
The Fukuyama-Mitsunobu alkylation procedure is widely used to introduce alkyl substituents to amino groups in general and N-alkylation of peptides in particular. Here we have investigated the procedure in detail for N-alkylation of peptides with N-terminal glycine residues, based on the observation that standard conditions lead to substantial bis-nosylation of the glycine amino group. A systematic evaluation of this observation was carried out and it was demonstrated that for peptides with alanine, β-alanine or γ-aminobutyric acid (GABA) as N-terminal residues mono-nosylation was observed under the same conditions. Moreover, bis-nosylation was independent of the type of resin, neighboring amino acid and nature of the peptide. Calculations suggest that the reason for the bis-nosylation is the fact that the deprotonated mono-nosyl species is particularly stable in the case of the terminal Gly residue because the N(-) residue can become closer to the SO(2) unit. Finally, the mono-nosylated N-terminal glycine could be obtained by careful optimization of the procedure, adding only one equivalent of 2-nitrobenzenesulfonyl chloride.
Original language | English |
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Journal | Organic & Biomolecular Chemistry |
Volume | 11 |
Issue number | 14 |
Pages (from-to) | 2288-2293 |
Number of pages | 6 |
ISSN | 1477-0520 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 14 Apr 2013 |