Addressing combinatorial and peptide analysis by using overpressured layer chromatography in comparison with high-performance liquid chromatography and capillary electrophoresis

Abstract

The generation of libraries of short oligopeptides, peptidomimetics, peptoids or other small organic molecules in combination with high-throughput screening has become the method of choice for the production of new pharmacological leads for chemical optimization. Molecular diversity can be achieved in any desired form by using either the portioning–mixing [1] or parallel synthetic methods carried out manually in test tubes or on-the-spot, or automatically with the aid of sophisticated robotics [2]. However, characterization and identification of library composition have been lagging behind the synthetic and screening methodologies. This paper demonstrates the application of overpressured layer chromatography (OPLC) [3], a robust, high-throughput analytical technique for the rapid and efficient characterization of a simple mixture of model peptides.