Preparation of adenosine nucleotide derivatives suitable for affinity chromatography

Methods of synthesizing a series of chemically-defined AMP, ADP, ATP, adenylyl imidodiphosphate and pyrophosphate derivatives suitable for affinity chromatography are extensively described. Each derivative has a single primary amino group at the end of a hexamethylene ;spacer' chain for attachment to CNBr-activated agarose. The synthesis of the derivative where the ;spacer' arm is attached directly to the 8 position of the adenine ring to produce 8-(6-aminohexyl)amino-AMP involves the direct bromination of AMP in the 8 position followed by displacement of the halogen by 1,6-diaminohexane. This monophosphate derivative can then be converted into the corresponding di- or triphosphate forms by direct phosphate condensation with carbonyl di-imidazole. A second series of adenosine phosphate derivatives with the phosphate moieties unsubstituted has been similarly prepared from N(6)-(6-aminohexyl)-AMP (Guilford et al., 1972). A third type of ligand has been synthesized by condensing the phosphoryl imidazolide of AMP with 6-aminohex-1-yl phosphate. This compound, P(1)-(6-aminohex-1-yl) P(2)-(5'-adenosyl) pyrophosphate, has an unsubstituted adenine ring. The synthesis of a fourth type of ligand, 6-aminohex-1-yl pyrophosphate, was done by heating 6-aminohexan-1-ol with crystalline pyrophosphoric acid under reduced pressure. The structures of the synthesized compounds were confirmed by chemical, electrophoretic and chromatographic methods and by u.v. spectrometry. The general applicability of the synthetic methods used is discussed in relation to the preparation of other affinity adsorbents. Examples are given where these derivatives have been successful in reversibly binding dehydrogenases, kinases and myosin and its proteolytic subfragments. The partial purification of rat liver glucokinase on an ADP derivative is shown.