Evaluation of the Trifluoromethanosulfonic Acid/Trifluoroacetic Acid/Thioanisole Cleavage Procedure for Application in Solid-Phase Peptide Synthesis

As an extension of our investigation of peptidyl-resin linkage stability towards different cleavage procedures used in the solid-phase peptide synthesis (SPPS) technique, the present paper evaluated the trifluoromethanesulfonic acid (TFMSA)/trifluoroacetic acid (TFA)/thioanisole method, varying the type of resin (benzhydrylamine-resin, BHAR; methylbenzhydrylamine-resin, MBHAR and 4-(oxymethyl)-phenylacetamidomethyl-resin, PAMR) and peptide resin-bound residue (Gly and Phe). The vasoactive angiotensin II (AII, DRVYIHPF) and its [Gly8]-AII analogue linked to those resins used routinely in tert-butyloxycarbonyl (Boc)-SPPS chemistry were submitted comparatively to a time course study towards TFMSA/TFA cleavage. At 0 °C, [Gly8]-AII was completely removed from all resins in less than 6 h, but the hydrophobic Phe8 moiety-containing AII sequence was only partially cleaved (not more than 15%) from BHAR or MBHAR in this period. At 25 °C, [Gly8]-AII cleavage time decreased to less than 2 h irrespective of the solid support, and quantitative removal of AII from PAMR and MBHAR occurred in less than 3 h. However, about 10-15 h seemed to be necessary for cleavage of AII from BHAR, and in this extended cleavage reaction a significant increase in peptide degradation rate was observed. Regardless of the cleavage temperature used, the decreasing order of acid stability measured for resins was BHAR>MBHAR>PAMR. Collectively, these findings demonstrated the feasibility of applying TFMSA/TFA solution as a substitute for anhydrous HF at the cleavage step in Boc-SPPS methodology. Care should be taken however, as the cleavage efficacy depends on multiple factors including the resin, peptide sequence, the time and temperature of reaction.