THE SYNTHESIS AND SCREENING OF A COMBINATORIAL PEPTIDE LIBRARY FOR AFFINITY LIGANDS FOR GLYCOSYLATED HEMOGLOBIN

This paper reports the synthesis and screening of a combinatorial pept ide library for new affinity ligands for glycosylated haemoglobin (HbA (1c)), which is an important indicator of diabetes control. The new li gands are suitable for large-scale synthesis and overcome the disadvan tages of antibodies (unstable and expensive to produce etc.), while re maining as efficient as antibodies in binding to the analyte. The libr ary consisted of 262 144 hexapeptides synthesised using the one-bead-o ne-compound technique. The hexapeptides attached onto beads were scree ned with glycosylated haemoglobin HbA(1c). The structures of the pepti des exhibiting high affinity were characterised by Edman microsequenci ng. Computer modelling simulation of one of the lead sequences has sho wn that this class of ligand has a high affinity and specificity for g lycosylated haemoglobin. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science S.A. All rights res erved.