Palladium-containing Artificial Peptidases

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9404971 Kostic Iowa State Univ. Dr. Nenad Kostic, Chemistry Department, Iowa State University, is supported by the Inorganic, Bioinorganic, and Organometallic Chemistry Program for the development of Pd(II) complexes as new inorganic chemical reagents for selective cleavage of proteins. Kostic has discovered that regioselective hydrolysis of peptides and proteins is promoted by Pt(II) and Pd(II) complexes. In this project the mechanism of this cleavage will be studied and the role of the metal ion analyzed. The information obtained in these studies will be used to increase the selectivity of the cleavage reactions and to design reagents which will perform the cleavage catalytically. Selective cleavage of large proteins into well defined smaller parts is important in analytical biochemistry and biotechnology. In current practice a group of enzymes known as proteases are used to perform this operation. However, the proteases do not cleave folded proteins and they generate many relatively short pieces of the protein, whereas large segments are often desired. This research is aimed at overcoming these problems with a new type of reagent based on the metals, platinum and palladium. Already this project has shown promise in biopharmaceutical research, where the selective cleavage of a protein has led to a potential commercial product.