The preparation of side chain functionalized analogues of coenzyme Q for protein conjugation studies

The synthesis of two analogues of CoQ (10 and 13) suitable for conjugation to a peptide or protein, and hence the development of an ELISA immunoassay, is presented. These analogues were synthesized from the protected quinone, 1-bromo-2-methyl-3,4,5,6-tetramethoxybenzene (1), itself prepared from commercially available CoQ-0 (3). Model coupling studies of one of the analogues (10) to N-acetyl-L-lysine methyl ester and a lysine containing dipeptide (N-acetylglycine-L-lysine methyl ester) were also undertaken as a first step to monoclonial antibody production.