Chemicals & raw materials Chemicals & raw materials


A green future for peptides


The use of peptides has been growing at pace during the past couple of decades, owing to their high likelihood of regulatory approval and probability of success in clinical trials. But peptide therapeutics, like many other product categories in the pharmaceutical industry, have been a target for criticism due to the large amount of wastage that occurs during their production. Peter Littlejohns speaks to Walter Cabri, full professor of organic chemistry in the Department of Chemistry ‘Giacomo Ciamician’ at the University of Bologna; and Alessandra Tolomelli, associate professor in the Department of Chemistry ‘Giacomo Ciamician’, to discuss how their work is giving peptide manufacturers options to lessen the environmental impact of synthesising peptides.


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here’s a degree of precision required when combining ingredients that has always made chemistry something of a delicate practice. The creation of peptides, a process known as peptide synthesis, provides the perfect example. In order to synthesise a peptide – generally regarded as a chain of less than 50 amino acids – two or more amino acids must be bonded together in a process known as coupling. This might sound simple, but amino acids are highly reactive, and to achieve the


required link without side reactions that can derail the process, chemical groups are added that bind to the amino acid reactive groups and protect the functional group from nonspecific reaction. Although the first successful peptide synthesis was carried out more than a century ago, it wasn’t until the early 1960s that solid-phase peptide synthesis (SPPS), the most common technique for creating peptides today, was founded by American biochemist Bruce Merrifield. Iterative developments


World Pharmaceutical Frontiers / www.worldpharmaceuticals.net


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