Easy-to-Attach/Detach Solubilizing-Tag-Aided Chemical Synthesis of an Aggregative Capsid Protein

A solubilizing Trt-K₁₀ tag was developed for the effective chemical preparation of peptides/proteins with low solubility. The Trt-K₁₀ tag comprises a hydrophilic oligo-Lys sequence and a trityl anchor, and can be selectively introduced to a side chain thiol of Cys of deprotected peptides/proteins with a trityl alcohol-type introducing reagent Trt(OH)-K₁₀ under acidic conditions. Significantly, the ligation product in the reaction mixture of a thiol-additive-free native chemical ligation can be modified directly in a one-pot manner to facilitate the isolation of the product by high-performance liquid chromatography. Finally, the Trt-K₁₀ tag can be readily removed with a standard trifluoroacetic acid cocktail. Using this easy-to-attach/detach tag-aided method, a hepatitis B virus capsid protein that is usually difficult to handle was synthesized successfully.