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Proteins can perform a series of significant functions with only 20 natural amino acids. These natural amino acids carry a limited number of functional groups, restricting the function of proteins in chemical and biological science research and applications. Structure modification of proteins through chemical modification, genetic site-directed mutation, and computer-aided protein design has given new functions to natural proteins, but is still limited to natural amino acids. Unnatural Amino Acids, which artificially impart diverse functional groups, are prominent in protein modification. These non-natural amino acids contain keto, aldehyde, azide, alkynyl, alkenyl, amido, nitro, phosphate, sulfonate and other functional groups, and can also be modified. Modifying unnatural amino acids of proteins brings new opportunities for theoretical research and applications. BOC Sciences can support the preparation and synthesis of more than 2,000 amino acid derivatives, of which our customers can request for customization.
Fig. 1. Amino acid structure.
The manufacture of amino acids began with protein hydrolysis in 1820, and chemical synthesis of amino acids in 1850. Until 1957, Japan successfully produced glutamic acid through fermentation, which also promoted the development of the world's amino acid industry. Currently, amino acid production methods are divided into two categories: synthesis and hydrolysis.
Among these four methods, fermentation and enzymatic hydrolysis are the most widely used in amino acid production due to their economic feasibility and ecological advantages. Advances in fermentation technology and improvements in microbial production strains have enabled the industrial large-scale production of amino acids. In addition, the selection of the amino acid preparation process should fully take into account the characteristics of the raw materials themselves. For example, feather protein waste is mainly composed of keratin. Keratin contains a high amount of cysteine (14%-15%), resulting in a high content of disulfide bonds. The fibers are cross-linked by disulfide bonds and hydrogen bonds, making them chemically stable and mechanically strong. Therefore, they need to undergo high temperature, high pressure, acidic, alkaline, or enzymatic treatment to break down into peptides or free amino acids for livestock and poultry utilization. Enzymatic hydrolysis cannot meet the requirements of the process, so the hydrolysis of feather keratin typically involves a more intense acidic hydrolysis method.
| Amino Acid Types | Preparation Methods | Amino Acid Types | Preparation Methods |
| L-Valine | Fermentation, synthesis | Glycine | Synthesis |
| L-Leucine | Chemical hydrolysis, fermentation | D,L-Alanine | Synthesis |
| L-Isoleucine | Fermentation | L-Alanine | Fermentation, enzymatic method |
| L-Threonine | Fermentation | L-Serine | Fermentation |
| D,L-Methionine | Synthesis | L-Glutamic Acid | Fermentation |
| L-Methionine | Synthetic method, enzymatic method | L-Glutamine | Fermentation |
| L-Phenylalanine | Synthetic method, enzymatic method | L-Proline | Fermentation |
| L-Lysine | Fermentation, enzymatic hydrolysis | L-Hydroxyproline | Chemical hydrolysis |
| L-Arginine | Fermentation, enzymatic hydrolysis | L-Ornithine | Fermentation |
| L-Aspartic Acid | Fermentation | L-Citrulline | Fermentation |
| L-Cysteine | Chemical hydrolysis | L-Tyrosine | Chemical hydrolysis |
Table 1. Preparation methods of main amino acids.
Asymmetric synthesis of amino acids is an important part of custom synthesis of amino acids. These methods are diverse and unique, mainly including resolution, high homologation of L-amino acids, asymmetric alkylation, asymmetric alkylation of imines, and asymmetric hydrogenation of dehydrogenated amino acids. Different synthesis methods can often complement each other. For example, asymmetric catalytic hydrogenation for the synthesis of chiral α-amino acids has high yield, high enantioselectivity, atomic economy, and environmental friendliness. Chiral adjuvant-induced alkylation methods can efficiently synthesize quaternary amino acids.
We use chemical synthesis to prepare substrates for enzyme reactions, and then use enzyme biocatalysis to produce amino acids with low cost and high optical purity. We can achieve cysteine, phenylalanine, lysine, tryptophan, aspartic acid, tyrosine, 5-hydroxytryptophan, dopa (dihydroxyphenylalanine), gamma-production of GABA, etc.
With strong research and development capabilities and advanced technical equipment, we use protein or protein-containing substances as raw materials to extract glutamic acid, threonine, phenylalanine and other amino acids after acid, alkali or enzyme hydrolysis.
With the help of professional engineering methods and production processes, we can provide direct fermentation synthesis of amino acids, fermentation synthesis with intermediates added, and corresponding efficient purification services.
Based on amino acid phosphorylation, N-glycosylation, O-glycosylation, hydroxylation, methylation, acetylation, and selenization modification strategies, we can quickly and effectively provide modified amino acids to global customers.
We provide customers with tailor-made amino acids using traditional or innovative synthetic methods for cost-effective large-scale production. The amino acids we synthesize have good pharmacological activity and can be used in the research and development of drugs, nutritional products and animal feed.
In solid-phase synthesis, in order to obtain the ideal target peptide, it is first necessary to protect the active groups of amino acids. We provide protection and deprotection services for amino, carboxyl and side chain reactive groups of amino acids. Based on efficient services, we also synthesize free amino acids, protected amino acids, peptides and their derivatives with high quality and low price.
Amino acids are amphoteric substances, and their amino and carboxyl groups can undergo protonation reactions. We can provide amino acid protonation protection, protonation prediction and isoelectric point determination services. The protonation reaction of amino acid can protect its amino group from being oxidized. Predicting the protonation of amino acids is important for protein homology modeling. Based on capillary isoelectric focusing (cIEF) technology, we can realize the determination of the isoelectric point of any amino acid.
Amino alcohols, also known as alkanolamines, are compounds that contain both an amino and hydroxyl functional group in the same molecule, which are used in pharmaceuticals, agrochemicals, and material industries. The synthesis of amino alcohols involves the complex stereochemistry and could be challenging. At BOC Sciences, we provide efficient and reliable amino alcohol synthesis services to meet the diverse needs of our customers.
BOC Sciences offers PEGylation of amino acids as a service to our customers. With our expertise and state-of-the-art equipment, we can ensure high-quality products and services that meet your requirements. We also offer a wide range of amino acids and PEG molecules to choose from.
Unnatural amino acids are artificially synthesized amino acids whose structure is different from natural amino acids. Some are introduced into natural amino acids to improve their performance, while others are completely different from natural amino acids and are the result of molecular design. In recent years, due to the increasingly in-depth research on the role of amino acid peptides and proteins in life activities, and the discovery of more and more active peptides with biological functions, synthetic methods have increasingly become a very useful method to study the relationship between structure and function. Based on this, BOC Sciences offers a fast track to unnatural amino acid synthesis involving custom synthesis of amino acids with unnatural side chains or modifications. Customers can request custom modifications of existing amino acids to meet your needs.
| Synthesis of α-amino acids | Synthesis of specific α-amino acids | Synthesis of β-amino acids |
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An important factor restricting the development of peptide drugs is the instability of peptide drugs. The introduction of unnatural amino acids into peptides can improve the stability of peptide drugs, and sometimes even increase the drug activity of peptide drugs. In view of this, asymmetric synthesis of amino acids through various methods is of great significance for the development of peptide drugs. Methods of enantioselective alkylation on the α-carbon of amino acids to form quaternary carbon centers have been reported, but the method of introducing aryl groups on the α-carbon of amino acids to prepare valuable α-aryl quaternary amino acids is very rare. This method not only can obtain aryl amino acids that cannot be obtained using classical methods, but also has wider potential for application in synthesis. Custom synthesis amino acids have a purity of 95% to 99%. A variety of technologies such as nuclear magnetic resonance, HPLC, IR, UV, LC/MS are used for analysis to meet customer requirements.
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