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Peptide-Based Drug Design

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Serum Stability of <strong>Peptide</strong>s 179<br />

2. Cleaving reagent trifluoroacetic acid (TFA; Shanghai Fluoride Chemicals,<br />

Shanghai, China).<br />

3. Acetonitrile (PerSeptive Biosystems, Framingham, MA), also known by the<br />

synonyms methyl cyanide, cyanomethane, ethanenitrile, and ethyl nitrile, is rather<br />

toxic and precautions should be taken.<br />

4. Automatic peptide synthesizer, Milligen 9050 PepSynthesizer (Milligen, Milford,<br />

MA).<br />

5. RP-HPLC (Waters Corporation, Milford, MA).<br />

6. Electron-spray interface VG QUATTRO quadruple mass spectrometer (VG Instruments<br />

Inc., Altrincham, UK).<br />

2.2. In Vitro <strong>Peptide</strong> Stability in Serum/Reaction Kinetics<br />

1. RPMI medium 1640 (Gibco, Invitrogen, Carlsbad, CA) supplemented with 25%<br />

(v/v) of human serum (Fisher BioReagents, Fisher Scientific, Pittsburg, PA) (see<br />

Note 2).<br />

2. <strong>Peptide</strong> stock solution: 1–10 mg/mL dissolved in pure dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO;<br />

Sigma, St. Louis, MO).<br />

3. Trichloroacetic acid (TCA; Sigma, St. Louis, MO) (aq) 6% or 15% (w/v), or 96%<br />

ethanol.<br />

4. TFA (Shanghai Fluoride Chemicals, Shanghai, China).<br />

5. RP-HPLC buffer A: 0.08% TFA in water, buffer B: 0.08% TFA in acetonitrile.<br />

2.3. In Vivo <strong>Peptide</strong> Stability Assay/Pharmacokinetics in Mice<br />

1. <strong>Peptide</strong> dissolved in sterile phosphate-buffered saline (PBS) pH 7.2.<br />

2. Balb/c mice (Charles River Laboratories, Wilmington, MA).<br />

3. TCA (Sigma, St. Louis, MO) (aq) 15% (w/v).<br />

3. Methods<br />

Today peptide synthesis is a mainstream operation in many big laboratories.<br />

Several companies have in addition specialized in providing custom-ordered<br />

peptides, e.g., large-scale peptides (made in solution), peptide libraries (made<br />

on cellulose membranes), or most commonly small peptide quantities (made on<br />

resin, solid phase synthesis). Although peptides are considered rather stabile in<br />

many test assays, concerns have been raised regarding their stability in presence<br />

of human serum.<br />

In a general serum stability assay, the peptide is subjected to human serum<br />

(see Note 3) at realistic temperature conditions and incubated for various time<br />

intervals, comparable to traditional protease assays. The reactions are stopped<br />

by TCA or ethanol, precipitating larger serum proteins while leaving peptides

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