Click pep-1 – Click Peptides

Pep-1 is a synthetic cell penetrating peptide (CPP) and has been successfully used to deliver a variety of proteins and other biopharmaceutical macromolecules into cells in a non-disruptive manner. It is a CPP with primary amphipathicity, which results from its amino acid sequence as opposed to its folding structure. The primary structure of Pep-1 comprises three main domains: a tryptophan-rich, ‘hydrophobic’ domain, a hydrophilic domain derived from an NLS (nuclear localisation signal) of SV40 (simian virus 40) large T-antigen, and a spacer. Pep-1 is provided here with a N-terminal alkyne attachment. Two of the most regularly encountered functional groups for click chemistry are azides and alkynes, and the azide-alkyne cycloaddition has become the most popular click reaction. The use of click chemistry with alkyne-Pep1 allows a wide variety of applications particularly for conjugation, modification and peptide design.