DOI: 10.21276/sajp

Pages: 108-112

Peptide nucleic acids (PNAs) are promising in diagnostic applications and of great interest due to their therapeutic potential. PNAs unique chemistry can be readily modified with amino acids or other functional groups by the use of peptide type chemistry. In the present study, we show the 10 µmol scale synthesis of a chimeric PNA oligomer containing an internal diaminopropionic acid (Dap) unit. And we compare the result obtained with two different fully automated peptide synthesizers. The product purity obtained with a Biotage instrument using diisopropylcarbodiimide/Oxyma and microwave heating was clearly superior to the purity obtained with the long standing workhorse Applied Biosystems 433A with efficient coupling reagent HATU.