Synthetic peptides related to laminin pentapeptide (YIGSR) fragment.

The synthetic laminin pentapeptide amide fragment (LF), Tyr-Ile-Gly-Ser-Arg-NH2 corresponding to a part of B1 chain of the glycoprotein, laminin, and six of its analogues having structural modifications at positions 1, 3 and 4 were synthesized by solid phase method employing mainly 9-fluorenylmethoxycarbonyl-amino acid trichlorophenyl esters as coupling agents and Merrifield resin as the solid support. Their biological activities were studied in vivo by lung tumor colonization assay and in vitro by cell adhesion assay. The activity of synthetic LF was found to correlate with the earlier reported results in both in vivo and in vitro assays. Among the analogues made, [Tyr4] LF and [Thr4]LF were found to inhibit the lung tumor colonies more efficiently than LF itself in the in vivo assay whereas [D- Ser4]LF exhibited almost the same inhibition as LF.