Synthesis and screening of peptoid arrays on cellulose membranes

Rapid synthesis and screening of compound libraries enables the accelerated identification of novel protein ligands in order to support processes like analysis of protein interactions, drug target discovery or lead structure discovery. SPOT synthesis—a well established method for the rapid preparation of peptide arrays—has recently been extended to the field of nonpeptides. In this contribution we report on the systematic evaluation of the SPOT technique for the assembly of N-alkylglycine (peptoid) library arrays. In the course of this investigation bromoacetic acid 2,4-dinitrophenylester () was identified to be the most suited agent for bromoacetylation in terms of yield and N-selectivity enabling straightforward submonomer synthesis on hydroxy-group rich cellulose membranes. The potential of this method for the rapid identification of novel nonpeptidic protein ligands was demonstrated by synthesis and screening of a library consisting of 8000 peptoids and peptomers (i.e. their hybrids with α-substituted amino acids) allowing the identification of micromolar ligands for the monoclonal antibody Tab-2.