| This project serves as a preliminary examination of selectively enhancing bond cleavage during chemical reactions in biological molecules by using continuous wave infrared lasers. To analyze protein content, polypeptides are broken into their constituent amino acids through hydrolysis. The cleaving of the peptide bond has traditionally been accomplished under harsh conditions, 110°C in 6 N hydrochloric acid for 24 hours. In this project hydrolysis was strongly enhanced by irradiating the dipeptides, threonyl-aspartate and alanyl-alanine, for 30 minutes with coherent infrared radiation from a tunable carbon dioxide laser. The dipeptide tyrosyl-tyrosine, the chemical N-methylacetimide, and the protein BSA were successfully hydrolyzed with the laser. The effect of reaction parameters such as laser power and HCl concentration were studied, as well as the effect of the primary parameter, the beam wavelength.; The samples were analyzed using standard biological methods for determining the amino acid concentration, thin layer chromatography and ion exchange chromatography. These methods gave consistent results for the irradiated samples as well as for standard amino acids and polypeptide samples. The results from these methods were used to create the hydrolysis spectra.; The catalytic action of the laser was strongly wavelength dependent. The hydrolysis spectra of the molecules were compared to the absorption spectra of the samples. Laser enhanced hydrolysis occurred when the laser wavelength coincided with a line in the dipeptide spectra. This weak line in each of the dipeptide spectra is consistent both in position and strength with a line in NMA, which has been identified as a fundamental mode associated with the peptide bond.; From the experimental results, the enhanced process appears to occur in the vapor phase. The initially liquid sample was progressively evaporated, and fully hydrolyzed material was carried to a collection trap by the vapor. It can, in principle, be extracted immediately and continuously, reducing the time involved and the degradation of the samples. If subsequent observations confirm that laser excited molecular resonance affects the reaction in vapor, the implications in physics will be numerous, including the study of atmospheric reactions and other light enhanced vapor phase reactions. |
