A new method of iodine labelling of peptide hormones

Usually peptide hormones and related compounds are radioactively labelled with iodine on tyrosine residues of the peptide. However many peptide hormones do not contain tyrosine or the iodinated tyrosine interferes with the biological properties. In order to circumvent these and other problems, a general method is proposed which allows the introduction of iodine into the para-position of phenylalanine with a modified Sandmeyer procedure. This last-step modification together with HPLC purification permits the obtention of carrier-free and metabolically stable labelled products with maximal specific activity possible. The model has been carried out on several peptide-models like angiotensin II, endorphine and head activator peptide.