Novel electrochemically-mediated peptide dethiylation in processes relevant to native chemical ligation

Abstract

Here we explore electrochemical dethiylation in processes relevant to Native Chemical Ligation (NCL). NCL's reliance on the redox active amino acid cysteine and β-mercaptamine derivatives suggests a potential role for electrochemistry. We show that the application of a 1 V potential to platinum electrodes in 0.15 M TCEP solution is sufficient to convert Cys to Ala in cyclic peptides, and to cleave the 2-mercapto-2-phenethyl class of acyl transfer auxiliary.