New photoaffinity labelled agonists of bradykinin

Several photoaffinity labelled agonists of the peptide hormone bradykinin (BK) were synthesized by solid phase methods. Their biological activities and binding affinities were determined in both the isolated rat uterus (RUT) and guinea pig ileum (GPI). As photoreactive groups p-benzoyl-phenylalanine (Bpa) and the arylazides azidobenzoic acid (ABA) and azidosalicylic acid (ASA) were attached to the N-terminus of the BK agonists. In addition, Bpa was incorporated at different positions of the BK sequence. Three different types of BK agonists were used. Firstly, the photolabels ASA and ABA were attached to BK or to Lys-BK (kallidin). Secondly, tyrosine containing BK analogues, suitable for radioiodination, were labelled. This series is derived from the naturally occurring analogue phyllokinin [BK-Ile-Tyr(SO3H)] and from BK analogues with tyrosine at position 0 and 3. The third series includes several analogues with D-N-methyl-phenylalanine (D-NMe-Phe) at position 7, which selectively discriminate between the RUT and GPI bradykinin B2 receptors. Among the photoaffinity labelled BK agonists, the iodinatable Lys(ASA)-BK (50.8% on RUT, 73.0% on GPI), ASA-BK (26.3% on RUT), Bpa-BK-Ile-Tyr (13.6% on RUT, 14.0% on GPI) and the iodinated [D-Bpa-1, 3-I-Tyr0]-BK (15.5% on RUT, 19.0% on GPI) retained a relatively high biological activity compared with BK (100%). Thus, although BK agonists are known to allow only very restricted modifications without a strong reduction in biological activity, these compounds should be useful candidates for receptor labelling.