ORGANIC
LETTERS
2012
Vol. 14, No. 21
5472–5475
Acid-Labile Cys-Protecting Groups for the
Fmoc/tBu Strategy: Filling the Gap
†,‡
Miriam Gongora-Benıtez,†,‡ Lorena Mendive-Tapia,†,‡ Ivan Ramos-Tomillero,
ꢀ
ꢀ
´
Arjen C. Breman,† Judit Tulla-Puche,*,†,‡ and Fernando Albericio*,†,§,
Institute for Research in Biomedicine, 08028-Barcelona, Spain, CIBER-BBN,
08028-Barcelona, Spain, Department of Organic Chemistry, University of Barcelona,
08028-Barcelona, Spain, and School of Chemistry, University of KwaZulu Natal,
4001-Durban, South Africa
albericio@irbbarcelona.org; judit.tulla@irbbarcelona.org
Received September 16, 2012
ABSTRACT
To address the existing gap in the current set of acid-labile Cys-protecting groups for the Fmoc/tBu strategy, diverse Fmoc-Cys(PG)-OH
derivatives were prepared and incorporated into a model tripeptide to study their stability against TFA. S-Dpm proved to be compatible with the
commonly used S-Trt group and was applied for the regioselecive construction of disulfide bonds.
Since the early days of peptide chemistry, the effective
synthesis of natural or non-natural isomers, analogues, or
de novo designed peptides with complex disulfide bridge
patternshasbeena demanding task. Theoxidativefolding1
of fully deprotected linear peptides is a desirable and
commonly applied approach for the synthesis of complex
Cys-rich peptides. However, achievement of the desired
disulfide bond connectivity through this approach is not
always affordable. To overcome these challenging syn-
theses, a myriad of protecting groups for the β-thiol group of
Cys, along with efficient regioselective protection schemes,
have been developed.2
In recent years, several acid-labile Cys-protecting
groups have been developed for the Fmoc/tBu strategy
(Figure 1).3 Most of these are highly sensitive to acid, the
S-Trt group being one of the most commonly used in the
Fmoc/tBu approach. In contrast, the S-Mob group re-
quires a high TFA concentration and harsh conditions
(high temperature and long reaction times) to be fully
removed. In this regard, the current gap between S-Trt
and S-Mob groups captured our attention and prompted
us to browse through acid-labile protecting groups to find
Cys-protecting groups that, ideally, could be quantita-
tively removable under mild acidic conditions and, simul-
taneously, show compatibility with S-Trt for their further
application in synthetic strategies for the preparation
of Cys-rich peptides. Thus, three distinct scaffolds, namely
diphenylmethyl, biphenylmethyl, and benzyl groups, were
selected and finely tuned for this purpose. Twelve Fmoc-
Cys(PG)-OH (1aꢀl) were prepared and incorporated into
the model tripeptide Fmoc-Ala-Cys(PG)-Leu-NH2 (2aꢀl),
† Institute for Research in Biomedicine.
‡ CIBER-BBN.
§ University of Barcelona.
University of KwaZulu Natal.
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Welker, E.; Wedemeyer, W. J.; Scheraga, H. A. Acc. Chem. Res. 2000,
33, 805. (c) Anfinsen, C. B. Biochem. J. 1972, 128, 737.
(2) (a) Barany, G.; Merrifield, R. B. Solid-phase peptide synthesis. In
The Peptides; Gross, E., Meienhofer, J., Eds.; Academic Press: New York,
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1979; Vol. 2, pp 1ꢀ84. (b) Andreu, D.; Albericio, F.; Sole, N. A.;
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Munson, M. C.; Ferrer, M.; Barany, G. In Methods in Molecular
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Eds.; Humana Press Inc.: Totowa, NJ, 1994; Vol. 35, pp 91ꢀ169.
(3) (a) Isidro-Llobet, A.; Alvarez, M.; Albericio, F. Chem. Rev. 2009,
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109, 2455–2504. (b) Boulegue, C.; Musiol, H. J.; Prasad, V.; Moroder, L.
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r
10.1021/ol302550p
Published on Web 10/17/2012
2012 American Chemical Society