Peptide backbone cleavage by α-amidation is enhanced at methionine residues

Cleavage reactions at backbone loci are one of the consequences of oxidation of proteins and peptides. During α-amidation, the Cα -N bond in the backbone is cleaved under formation of an N-terminal peptide amide and a C-terminal keto acyl peptide. On the basis of earlier works, a facilitation of α-amidation by the thioether group of adjacent methionine side chains was proposed. This reaction was characterized by using benzoyl methionine and benzoyl alanyl methionine as peptide models. The decomposition of benzoylated amino acids (benzoyl-methionine, benzoyl-alanine, and benzoyl-methionine sulfoxide) to benzamide in the presence of different carbohydrate compounds (reducing sugars, Amadori products, and reductones) was studied during incubation for up to 48 h at 80 °C in acetate-buffered solution (pH 6.0). Small amounts of benzamide (0.3-1.5 mol%) were formed in the presence of all sugars and from all benzoylated species. However, benzamide formation was strongly enhanced, when benzoyl methionine was incubated in the presence of reductones and Amadori compounds (3.5-4.2 mol%). The reaction was found to be intramolecular, because α-amidation of a similar 4-methylbenzoylated amino acid was not enhanced in the presence of benzoyl-methionine and carbohydrate compounds. In the peptide benzoyl-alanyl-methionine, α-amidation at the methionine residue is preferred over α-amidation at the benzoyl peptide bond. We propose here a mechanism for the enhancement of α-amidation at methionine residues.