Thursday, March 4, 2010

BARAC - yet another strain-promoted copper-free click chemistry







Believe it or not, this one is called BARAC. 

Click chemistry is certainly not "done". This time, instead of electronic properties, Bertozzi group looked at the strain energy by introducing some level of double bond nature into the octyne ring structure. The choice was amide bond which displays well-known partial double bond nature (C=N). "Brushing against the line between stability and reactivity without crossing it", this is another beautiful example of "rational design" in physical organic chemistry. "Gratifying", The click reaction rate was superior, 12-fold faster than DIFO the difluoro-version. The group then evaluated BARAC derivatives in their "traditional" cell glycobiology imaging where cell surface carries glycan azide. It demonstrates superior performance than DIFO and DIBO. Modular and scalable synthesis of BARAC offers more opportunities and wider applications of this new copper-free click chemistry. 

Champagne finished, time to work on the next click chemistry.

Journal of the American Chemical Society, 2010, DOI 10.1021/ja100014q

Monday, March 1, 2010

Click chemistry patent - cyclopeptide imaging agents


US 7666392 B2

A good example of the application of click chemistry in biomedicine and diagnostics.

This patent by Hartmuth Kolb et al, was issued on February 23, 2010.
The title reads as "Click chemistry derived cyclopeptide derivatives as imaging agents for integrins". It described radiolabeled cyclic peptides and their use in imaging, such as Positron Emitting Tomography (PET) or Single Photon Emission Computed Tomagraphy (SPECT). The graph shows one example where two units of cyclic peptides, via a PEG linker, are conjugated to the radiolabel by triazole click chemistry. It is obviously advantageous to introduce the radiolabels by the "near-perfect" click chemistry.

Note Dr. Kolb is one of the authors of the influential article "Diverse Chemical Function from a Few Good Reactions".
Kolb, Finn, Sharpless, Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2001, 40(11), 2004