Antisense peptide interactions studied by electrospray ionization mass spectrometry

Non-covalent interactions between met- and leu-enkephalins and their antise nse peptides were studied by electrospray ionization mass spectrometry. Mix tures of sense and antisense peptides gave both the corresponding homodimer s and heterodimers, The relative abundance ratios of the heterodimer to tha t of the homodimer of the sense peptide and the relative stability constant s of the heterodimers were compared with the corresponding values from mixt ures of the sense peptides and a control peptide. The results show that the re is a preferential interaction between the sense and antisense peptides c ompared with that between the sense and control peptides. Copyright (C) 200 0 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.