RW4 peptide

RW4 peptide

• Handling and Storage of Synthetic Peptides
• Material Safety Data Sheets (MSDS)

1 Vial

H-RWRWRWRW-NH2

H-Arg-Trp-Arg-Trp-Arg-Trp-Arg-Trp-NH2

8

95.08

C₆₈H₉₁N₂₅O₈

1386.61

Synthetic

RW4 is a short peptide containing repeating arginine (R) and tryptophan (W) residues which has been shown to possess antimicrobial and antifungal activity with low cytotoxicity. The positively charged arginine interacts with the bacterial membrane through electrostatic attraction whereas the non-polar tryptophan residue interacts with the lipid bilayer. These two properties allow RW4 to interact with the bacterial membrane, resulting in membrane destabilization and pore formation and bacterial cell death. RW4 has been shown to have enhanced activity in combination with other antimicrobial agents.

Normally, this peptide will be delivered in lyophilized form and should be stored in a freezer at or below -20 °C. For more details, please refer to the manual:Handling and Storage of Synthetic Peptides

• Strøm et al (2002) Antimicrobial activity of short arginine- and tryptophan-rich peptides. J. Pept. Sci. 8(8) 431 PMID: 12212806
• Liu et al (2007) Length effects in antimicrobial peptides of the (RW)n series. Antimicrob. Agents Chemother. 51(2) 597 PMID: 17145799
• Mohan et al (2014) Enhanced antimicrobial activity of peptide-cocktails against common bacterial contaminants of ex vivo stored platelets. Clin. Microbiol. Infect. 20(1) O39 PMID: 23926880

Trifluoroacetic acid (TFA) is a strong acid, which is commonly used to cleave synthesized peptides from solid-phase resins and is also used to improve HPLC performance in the peptide purification step. By default, custom peptides are delivered as lyophilized TFA salts, and can contain as much as 10-45% TFA.

TFA in custom peptides can cause inexplicable discrepancies in subsequent assay data. For instance, TFA in nM concentrations has been shown to interfere with cellular assays, inhibiting cellular proliferation in some instances, and increasing cell viability in others . It has also been found to be an unintended allosteric modulator of the glycine receptor, GlyR.

TFA Removal Service is recommended for:

• Peptides that will be used in cellular assays
• Peptides that will be used as APIs or in manufactured products
• For hydrophilic peptides containing numerous basic residues