Fluorophore-assisted click chemistry through copper(I) complexation

Victor Flon (1) , Magalie Bénard (2) , Damien Schapman (2) , Ludovic Galas (2) , Pierre-Yves Renard (1) , Cyrille Sabot (1)

1 COBRA - Chimie Organique et Bioorganique : Réactivité et Analyse
2 PRIMACEN - Plate-Forme de Recherche en Imagerie Cellulaire de Haute-Normandie

The copper-catalyzed alkyne-azide cycloaddition (CuAAC) is one of the most powerful chemical strategies for selective fluorescent labeling of biomolecules in vitro or in biological systems. In order to accelerate the ligation process and ensure efficient formation of conjugates under diluted conditions, external copper(I) ligands or sophisticated copper(I) chelating azides are used. This latter strategy, however, increases the bulkiness of the triazole linkage, thus perturbing the biological function or dynamic behavior of the conjugates. In a-proof-of-concept study, we investigated the use of an extremely compact fluorophore-based copper(I) chelating azide in order to accelerate the CuAAC with concomitant fluorescence labeling; In our strategy, the fluorophore is able to complex copper(I) species while retaining its photophysical properties. It is believed that this unprecedented approach which was applied for the labeling of a short peptide molecule and the fluorescent labeling of live cells, could be extended to other families of nitrogen-based fluorophores in order to tune both the reaction rate and photophysical characteristics.

Mots clés: click chemistry; CuAAC; chelating fluorophore; chelating azide; fluorescent labeling; azaphthalimide; Kondrat'eva ligation

Domaines: Chimie

Victor Flon, Magalie Bénard, Damien Schapman, Ludovic Galas, Pierre-Yves Renard, et al.. Fluorophore-assisted click chemistry through copper(I) complexation. Biomolecules, 2020, 10 (4), pp.619. ⟨10.3390/biom10040619⟩. ⟨hal-03034414⟩