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Updated: May 15, 2026

Targeting Cysteine Thiols for in Vitro Site-specific Glycosylation of Recombinant Proteins
Published on: October 4, 2017
Visible light mediated activation and O-glycosylation of thioglycosides
Walter J Wever1, Maris A Cinelli, Albert A Bowers
1Division of Chemical Biology and Medicinal Chemistry, Eshelman School of Pharmacy, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, North Carolina 27599, USA.
Abstract:
Visible light catalysis allows the efficient construction of single electron transfer (SET) redox cycles that result in minimal formation of byproducts and proceed under exogenous control of a removable light source. The O-glycosylation of thioglycosides via visible light photoredox chemistry is reported. Mechanistic studies show that the reaction is fully light responsive and support a mechanism involving decomposition of an oxidatively generated sulfur radical cation and propagation via reduction of the thiol side product.
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