Synthetic Route to Human Relaxin‑2 via Iodine-Free Sequential Disulfide Bond Formation

A new synthetic route to human relaxin-2 has been established through a sequential disulfide bond formation process in the absence of iodine. It is enabled by a combination of cysteine protection with penicillin G acylase-labile Phacm and a newly identified thiol activator bis­(5-(2-methoxyethoxy)-2-pyrimidinyl disulfide. The long-standing challenges in relaxin B-chain assembly and its poor solubility have been solved by the insertion of two isoacyl dipeptide segments. The overall yield was 25% from the B chain and 5.8% from the B-chain starting resin.