Solubility is a key property of peptides and of central importance to the success of solid-phase peptide synthesis and subsequent peptide purification and handling. Substitution of the backbone amide bond can dramatically increase peptide solubility. Backbone amide bond protection works by preventing the formation of interchain association and can be used both to synthesize aggregation-prone peptide sequences on solid phase and to improve solubility of a peptide post synthesis. Improving peptide solubility by judicial use of backbone protection is of growing importance, particularly for chemical protein synthesis by chemical ligation.
Keywords: Backbone amide protection; Difficult sequences; Peptide solubility.