KAHA ligations that form aspartyl aldehyde residues as synthetic handles for protein modification and purification

Aldehydes are widely recognized as valuable synthetic handles for the chemoselective manipulation of peptides and proteins. In this report, we show that peptides and small proteins containing the aspartic acid semialdehyde (Asa) side chain can be easily prepared by a chemoselective amide-forming ligation that results in the formation of the Asa residue at the ligation site. This strategy employs the α-ketoacid-hydroxylamine (KAHA) ligation in combination with a new isoxazolidine monomer that forms a side-chain aldehyde upon ligation. This monomer is easily prepared on a preparative scale by a catalytic, enantioselective approach and is readily introduced onto the N-terminus of a peptide segment by solid phase peptide synthesis. The ligated product can be further functionalized by bioorthogonal reactions between the aldehyde residue and alkoxyamines or hydrazides. We demonstrated that glucagon aldehyde, an unprotected 29-mer peptide prepared by KAHA ligation, can be site specifically and chemoselectively modified with biotin, dyes, aliphatic oximes, and hydroxylamines. We further describe a simple and high recovery one-step purification process based on the capture of a 29-mer glucagon aldehyde and a 76-mer ubiquitin aldehyde by an alkoxyamine-functionalized polyethylene glycol resin. The peptide or protein was released from the resin by addition of a hydroxylamine to provide the corresponding oximes.