| 摘要 |
The invention provides a method of monitoring reactions in solid phase peptide synthesis, wherein the electrical conductivity of the reaction solution is monitored. Conductivity measurements provide an indication of the progress of reactions to completion, and may then be used to provide feed-back control in automatic or semi-automatic synthesis systems. The method may be used for syntheses in batch mode or in continuous flow systems. It is particularly suitable for use with syntheses based on the FMOC protection strategy. The conductivity monitored may be due to the production of ion pairs in the reaction solution during a coupling step. These ion pairs may be formed between a growing peptide chain and an acid catalyst used to catalyse the coupling step, or between ester groups released from an incoming amino acid during coupling and a proton acceptor present in the reaction solution. Washing and deprotection steps in a synthesis can also be monitored in accordance with the invention. The invention additionally provides apparatus suitable for use in the above described method. |
