The prefixing of 'homo' to the name of an amino acid indicates the addition of a methylene (CH2) group on the a-carbon of an amino acid
These are used for creating peptide analogues that have may have altered biological activity.
An example is shown in Shimizu's paper, where certain amino acids in the parathyroid hormone peptide PTH (1-14) have been substituted with Aib (aminoisobutyric acid) and homoarginine.
This shorter N-terminal fragment is found to be as potent as PTH (1-34) for stimulating cAMP formation in PTH-1 receptor-expressing cells.
AnaSpec, a leading provider of integrated proteomics solutions, provides a source of homo-amino acids suited for either drug discovery or investigation of peptide biological activity.
Homo-amino acids:.
Fmoc-homoarginine(Pbf)-OH.
Fmoc-S-trityl-L-homocysteine.
Boc-S-trityl-L-homocysteine.
Fmoc-L-homophenylalanine.
Fmoc-D-homophenylalanine.
Fmoc-homoproline-OH or Fmoc-Pip-OH.
