Development and application of bond cleavage reactions in bioorthogonal chemistry
February 16th, 2016 by Jie Li
Nature Chemical Biology 12, 129 (2016). doi:10.1038/nchembio.2024
Authors: Jie Li & Peng R Chen
Diels-Alder reaction–triggered bioorthogonal protein decaging in living cells
November 2nd, 2014 by Jie Li
Nature Chemical Biology 10, 1003 (2014). doi:10.1038/nchembio.1656
Authors: Jie Li, Shang Jia & Peng R Chen
Small molecules that specifically activate an intracellular protein of interest are highly desirable. A generally applicable strategy, however, remains elusive. Herein we describe a small molecule–triggered bioorthogonal protein decaging technique that relies on the inverse electron-demand Diels-Alder reaction for eliminating a chemically caged protein side chain within living cells. This method permits the efficient activation of a given protein (for example, an enzyme) in its native cellular context within minutes.