Solid phase synthesis of peptides containing the non-hydrolysable analog of (O)phosphotyrosine, P(CH2PO3H2)Phe

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Abstract
Studies about phosphorylation-dephosphorylation mechanisms require the development of probes capable of being used in in vitro and in vivo conditions. We show in this work that the chemically and enzymatically stable p(CH2PO3H2)Phe analog of (O)phosphotyrosine can be easily introduced in peptides by the solid-phase method. It has been incorporated in the 344-357 sequence of the beta 2 adrenergic receptor in place of the Tyr residue in position 350 and/or 354 in order to investigate the role of tyrosine phosphorylation in the receptor agonist-induced down-regulation. Since p(CH2PO3H2)Phe is an ionized hydrophilic residue, peptides containing this amino acid do not easily permeate the cellular membranes. Therefore the modified amino acid was introduced in the synthetic pathway in its N-Boc-p(CH2PO3Et2)Phe form, which could be partially or completely deprotected. Coupling steps, including that of the new amino acid, were performed with good yields (approximately 60% total yield) and further deprotections provided both the p(CH2PO3H2)Phe and p(CH2PO3HEt)Phe containing peptides with yields of around 20% each. The structure of the peptides was assessed by NMR, mass spectroscopy and amino acid analysis and the new amino acid was characterized under its phenylthiocarbamyl form (PTC).