A cleavage cocktail for methionine-containing peptides

A new cocktail has been developed for cleavage and deprotection of methionine-containing peptides synthesized by 9-fluorenylmethoxycarbonyl (Fmoc)-based solid-phase peptide synthesis methodology. The cocktail (trifluoroacetic acid 81%, phenol 5%, thioanisole 5%, 1,2-ethanedithiol 2.5%, water 3%, dimethylsulphide 2%, ammonium iodide 1.5% w/w) was designed to minimize methionine side-chain oxidation. Application of the new cocktail (Reagent H) is demonstrated with the synthesis of a model pentadecapeptide from the active site of DsbC, a periplasmic protein involved in protein disulphide bond formation. The model peptide, which contains one methionine and two cysteine residues, was cleaved with several cleavage cocktails, including Reagent H. The crude peptides obtained with the widely used cocktails K, R and B were found to be 15% to 55% in the methionine sulphoxide form, whereas no methionine sulphoxide was detected in the crude peptide obtained by cleavage and deprotection with Reagent H. Also, no methionine sulphoxide was detected when 1.5% w/w NH4I was added to cocktails K, R and B; however, the yield of the desired peptide was less than with Reagent H. A second 28 amino acid model peptide of the active site of DsbC was also cleaved and deprotected with Reagent H. The reduced dithiol form of the peptide was found to be the major component (51% yield) of the crude peptide obtained by cleavage for 3 h. When the cleavage time was extended to 10 h, the peptide was converted to the intramolecular disulphide form (35% yield). A proposed mechanism for the in situ oxidation of cysteine with Reagent H is presented.