Use of onium salt-based coupling reagents in peptide synthesis

Peptide coupling methods derived from onium salts based on 1-hydroxybenzotriazole (HOBt) and 1-hydroxy-7-azabenzotriazole (HOAt) are becoming incorporated in synthetic strategies more frequently than the classical carbodiimide methods. We have correlated the reactivity of various onium salts derived from HOXt (X = A, B), with the structure of the reagents in question. Thus, we confirmed that the aza derivatives are more reactive than the parent benzotriazole derivatives in both activation and coupling. In addition, the activation step is determined by the structure of the carbon skeleton. Thus, pyrrolidino derivatives appear to be reagents of choice relative to the piperidino analogues or those derived from trialkylamines. Furthermore although phosphonium salts are slightly less reactive than the corresponding aminium/uronium salts, the former should be used for the activation of hindered species, since the latter may lead to the formation of guanidino derivatives.