Microwave Heating & Stapled Peptide Synthesis: An Overview

Stapling peptides is a viable way to stabilize α-helices, which are the cornerstone of proper peptide and protein biological activity determination. 

Utilizing peptides for studying protein-to-protein relations and monitoring their biological pathways is a logical way to study those, as mentioned earlier. That is why stapling peptides serve an integral role in research. 

Although other, less precise conductive heating has been applied to peptide synthesis, it’s nowhere near as effective as conducting heat through precise microwave irradiation. In this article, we’re going to learn the benefits of microwave heating in the synthesis of stapled peptides. 

The Purity 

With the utilization of microwave heating, you cannot only staple peptides together, but small proteins as well. It works best in a laboratory, but its implementation on the industrial scale is steadily rising. 

When it comes to purity, though the utilization of precise and complex microwave heating conduction, the synthesis of a pro-apoptotic BIM stapled peptide was done with 80%. 

Getting high purity preparation in peptide synthesis is not only time consuming, but relatively expensive — the lower the purity, the lower the application of the peptide synthesis result. The lowest, and thus cheapest purity that companies offer, is from 50% to 70%; at this level of purity, the final result is the crude peptide. 

While these have some application potential, it’s far less than a better-refined peptide, as the product from conducted microwave heating.

The Speed 

Hydrocarbon stapled peptides are very viable for microwave heating synthesis, and this doesn’t only increase purity. The rule of thumb is, the better the result, the longer it took to achieve it. 

When it comes to standard room temperature synthesis of a BID SAHB peptide, the complete process takes over 35 hours of experimental time to realize the unstapled product. Combine this with the additional hours which are needed for the stapling itself after peptide realization, and you have over 40 hours invested in the whole process for a relatively pure product.

The speed at which this is achieved through microwave heating is also way faster, as the same effect was achieved after only four hours, resulting in 80% purity. 

These results are consistent; through microwave heating induced synthesis, the purity is always the same. 

The Price

Peptide synthesis isn’t cheap and when it comes to various synthesis methods, the price can get out of hand fairly quickly. When you’re working with microwave heat-conducting peptide synthesis, the price drastically drops.

Peptide synthesis has immense applications in the scientific research community, and excellent service usually costs a lot of money. Consistent and viable results aren’t always easy to come by, and that’s why you have to go to a reputable professional company for your peptide synthesis needs. 

This method is far cheaper than others and tends to deliver the best price to ratio. The best companies will offer you with a myriad of services aside from stapled peptide synthesis, such as: 

• Gene Synthesis
• Peptide Synthesis
• Protein Expression & Purification
• Antibody Production
• Antibody Sequencing Services

In Conclusion

Conducting stapled peptide synthesis has immense applications in the scientific community; utilizing the best resources available to you is essential. This method doesn’t only yield consistent, viable, and excellent results, it does so in a timely and cost-effective manner as well.