Reversible labeling of tyrosine residue in peptide using 4-fluoro-7-nitro-2,1,3-benzoxadiazole and N-acetyl-L-cysteine.

The reversible labeling of tyrosine (Tyr)-containing peptide, which involves detection and recovery, is described in this paper. The phenolic-OH in Tyr structure reacted with 4-fluoro-7-nitro-2,1,3-benzoxadiazole (NBD-F) under a mild condition at room temperature in alkaline medium. The resulting derivative absorbed at around 280 nm and 380 nm. However, the fluorescence was very weak. The NBD moiety in the derivative was efficiently removed by the treatment of N-acetyl-L-cysteine (N-AcCys), and the original peptide before the labeling was completely recovered. The proposed procedure was successfully applied to the reversible labeling of N-terminal amine-blocked peptides, i.e., N-AcTyr-Val-Gly, Z-Glu-Tyr, Z-Phe-Tyr, N-Formyl-Met-Leu-Tyr, and N-AcArg-Pro-Pro-Gly-Phe-Ser-Pro-Tyr-Arg. Although the proposed method could not recover the N-terminal amine-free peptides without blocking, the selective detection and the recovery of Tyr-containing peptide fragments were possible by the combination with enzyme digestion. The reversible labeling of Tyr-containing peptide was demonstrated with [Tyr8]-bradykinin as a model for high-molecular-mass peptides and proteins. The peptide fragments containing NBD-O-Tyr moiety, obtained after the digestion, were easily discriminated from various peptides with the monitoring of UV and FL, because the target peptide did not fluoresce, but absorbed at both 280 nm and 380 nm. The peptide fragment containing Tyr was finally recovered from the de-labeling reaction with N-AcCys. The proposed method hence provides a novel technique for the reversible labeling of Tyr-containing peptides, which will enable the selective detection and the recovery of the original peptide.