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Bioorthogonal organic chemistry in living cells: novel strategies for labeling biomolecules.

The chemical labeling of biomolecules continues to be an important tool for the study of their function and cellular fate. Attention is increasingly focused on labeling of biomolecules in living cells, since cell lysis introduces many artefacts. In addition, with the advances in biocompatible synthetic organic chemistry, a whole new field of opportunity has opened up, affording high diversity in the nature of the label as well as a choice of ligation reactions. In recent years, several different two-step labeling strategies have emerged. These rely on the introduction of a bioorthogonal attachment site into a biomolecule, then ligation of a reporter molecule to this site using bioorthogonal organic chemistry. This Perspective focuses on these techniques, their implications and future directions.

Animals↗

Bioorthogonal noncovalent chemistry: Fluorous phases in chemical biology.

Chemical entities designed to noncovalently interact with predetermined partners have fashioned a new paradigm in chemical biology. Fluorocarbons are extremely promising as supramolecular synthons toward these objectives. Bioorthogonal noncovalent interactions provide a way to modulate self-assembled systems in environments where such control has hitherto not been possible. Fluorocarbons have now found applications in self-assembly as well as proteomics, biomolecule purification and in the creation of microarray platforms. Other self-assembly motifs with similar attributes might be exploited using the same general approach.

Cell Adhesion↗

Chemo-selective proteomics in microbial systems.

SUMMARYOver the past two decades, the field of bioorthogonal chemistry has transitioned from emerging to an established cornerstone of scientific inquiry. In parallel, advances in microbial and host-microbe research have highlighted the need for functional approaches that extend beyond genomic and transcriptomic analyses to directly interrogate protein-level activity. Despite this need, proteomic strategies capable of resolving dynamic, heterogeneous, and low-abundance protein populations remain underdeveloped in microbial systems. This review highlights the convergence of chemo-selective proteomic technologies with microbial biology, focusing on bioorthogonal non-canonical amino acid tagging (BONCAT), activity- or affinity-based protein profiling, and bioorthogonal post-translational modifications, and comments on possibilities for novel applications for the use of click chemistry-based tools in the functional interrogation of microbial systems. Together, these strategies enable spatiotemporal resolution of protein synthesis, selective profiling of microbial subpopulations, and direct characterization of protein activity and regulation in complex biological contexts, including single-species cultures, host-associated environments, and polymicrobial communities. Continued development and utilization of these technologies will enable deeper mechanistic insight into how microbial systems function and respond to environmental and host-derived cues.

bioorthogonal chemistry↗

Tagging and detection strategies for activity-based proteomics.

The field of activity-based proteomics is a relatively new discipline that makes use of small molecules, termed activity-based probes (ABPs), to tag and monitor distinct sets of proteins within a complex proteome. These activity-dependant labels facilitate analysis of systems-wide changes at the level of enzyme activity rather than simple protein abundance. While the use of small molecule inhibitors to label enzyme targets is not a new concept, the past ten years have seen a rapid expansion in the diversity of probe families that have been developed. In addition to increasing the number and types of enzymes that can be targeted by this method, there has also been an increase in the number of methods used to visualize probes once they are bound to target enzymes. In particular, the use of small organic fluorophores has created a wealth of applications for ABPs that range from biochemical profiling of diverse proteomes to direct imaging of active enzymes in live cells and even whole animals. In addition, the advent of new bioorthogonal coupling chemistries now enables a diverse array of tags to be added after targets are labeled with an ABP. This strategy has opened the door to new in vivo applications for activity-based proteomic methods.

Affinity Labels↗

Profiling enzyme activities in vivo using click chemistry methods.

Methods for profiling the activity of enzymes in vivo are needed to understand the role that these proteins and their endogenous regulators play in physiological and pathological processes. Recently, we introduced a tag-free strategy for activity-based protein profiling (ABPP) that utilizes the copper(I)-catalyzed azide-alkyne cycloaddition reaction ("click chemistry") to analyze the functional state of enzymes in living cells and organisms. Here, we report a detailed characterization of the reaction parameters that affect click chemistry-based ABPP and identify conditions that maximize the speed, sensitivity, and bioorthogonality of this approach. Using these optimized conditions, we compare the enzyme activity profiles of living and homogenized breast cancer cells, resulting in the identification of several enzymes that are labeled by activity-based probes in situ but not in vitro.

Alkynes↗

A comparative study of bioorthogonal reactions with azides.

Detection of metabolites and post-translational modifications can be achieved using the azide as a bioorthogonal chemical reporter. Once introduced into target biomolecules, either metabolically or through chemical modification, the azide can be tagged with probes using one of three highly selective reactions: the Staudinger ligation, the Cu(I)-catalyzed azide-alkyne cycloaddition, or the strain-promoted [3 + 2] cycloaddition. Here, we compared these chemistries in the context of various biological applications, including labeling of biomolecules in complex lysates and on live cell surfaces. The Cu(I)-catalyzed reaction was found to be most efficient for detecting azides in protein samples but was not compatible with live cells due to the toxicity of the reagents. Both the Staudinger ligation and the strain-promoted [3 + 2] cycloaddition using optimized cyclooctynes were effective for tagging azides on live cells. The best reagent for this application was dependent upon the specific structure of the azide. These results provide a guide for biologists in choosing a suitable ligation chemistry.

Azides↗

Chemistry in living systems.

Dissecting complex cellular processes requires the ability to track biomolecules as they function within their native habitat. Although genetically encoded tags such as GFP are widely used to monitor discrete proteins, they can cause significant perturbations to a protein's structure and have no direct extension to other classes of biomolecules such as glycans, lipids, nucleic acids and secondary metabolites. In recent years, an alternative tool for tagging biomolecules has emerged from the chemical biology community--the bioorthogonal chemical reporter. In a prototypical experiment, a unique chemical motif, often as small as a single functional group, is incorporated into the target biomolecule using the cell's own biosynthetic machinery. The chemical reporter is then covalently modified in a highly selective fashion with an exogenously delivered probe. This review highlights the development of bioorthogonal chemical reporters and reactions and their application in living systems.

Animals↗

The Staudinger ligation-a gift to chemical biology.

Although the reaction between an azide and a phosphane to form an aza-ylide was discovered by Hermann Staudinger more than 80 years ago and has found widespread application in organic synthesis, its potential as a highly chemoselective ligation method for the preparation of bioconjugates has been recognized only recently. As the two reaction partners are bioorthogonal to almost all functionalities that exist in biological systems and react at room temperature in an aqueous environment, the Staudinger ligation has even found application in the complex environment of living cells. Herein we describe the current state of knowledge on this reaction and its application both for the preparation of bioconjugates and as a ligation method in chemical biology.

Azides↗

Selective Enrichment of Newly Synthesized Proteins Using Phos-Tag Click Tip Enables Nascent Proteome Analysis in Influenza A Virus Infection.

Profiling of newly synthesized proteins (NSPs) provides access to dynamic changes in protein production that accompany acute cellular responses. Bioorthogonal noncanonical amino acid tagging (BONCAT)-based approaches enable selective labeling of NSPs; however, their broader application remains constrained by labor-intensive enrichment workflows and limited sensitivity for direct peptide-level analysis. Here, we developed a workflow termed "Phos-tag Click Tip" by integrating a phosphorylated variant of bicyclononyne (pBCN) with Phos-tag affinity purification to selectively capture azidohomoalanine (AHA)-labeled peptides for newly synthesized proteome analysis (NSProteomics). This approach overcomes key limitations of conventional proteomics and BONCAT-based strategies by enabling efficient enrichment and sensitive detection of NSP-derived peptides. Using this workflow, we performed comprehensive NSP profiling of host cells during influenza A virus infection. We identified dynamic changes in distinct NSP profiles associated with viral replication, host restriction, and immune responses, many of which were not readily detected with conventional whole-cell- or phospho-proteomic analyses. Overall, the Phos-tag Click Tip workflow provides a complementary approach for stimulus-responsive NSP profiling, offering functionally relevant insights into host-virus interactions and cellular response mechanisms.

Proteome↗