A REVIEW OF THE UTILITY OF SOLUBLE PEPTIDE COMBINATORIAL LIBRARIES

This paper reviews the preparation and use of soluble synthetic combin atorial libraries (SCLs) made up of millions of peptide and nonpeptide sequences for the identification of highly active individual compound s. First presented in 1991, SCLs have been prepared in a number of dif ferent lengths and formats, and are composed entirely of L-, D-, and u nnatural amino acids. Also, existing peptide libraries have been chemi cally transformed to yield large diversities of nonpeptidic compounds. This review encompasses the published work from this laboratory using SCLs for the identification of antigenic sequences recognized by mono clonal antibodies, novel peptide agonists and antagonists to opioid re ceptors, new trypsin inhibitors, novel antibacterials, and compounds t hat inhibit melittin's hemolytic activity. SCLs offer a fundamental, p ractical advance in the study of interactions between peptide and nonp eptide sequences and their biochemical or pharmacological targets. (C) 1995 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.