Automated multiple peptide synthesis: improvements in obtaining quality peptides.

Production of multiple overlapping peptides is a key step in the identification of T-cell epitopes. A large number of peptides can be produced by using ABIMED's automated multiple peptide synthesizer. We report here considerable improvement in the software and chemistry of peptide synthesis by introducing a resin mixing step during coupling, when using this synthesizer. A comparison of two solvent systems for synthesis was performed. Six test peptides were synthesized by standard and modified methods. The purity of peptides, assessed by HPLC and mass spectrometry, showed a substantial improvement when automated resin mixing and mixed solvent system were used. These improvements enable us to produce 48 peptides within a week each of sufficient purity to be used for rapid screening of T-cell epitopes.