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Synthesis and Bioconjugation of Thiol-Reactive Reagents for the Creation of Site-Selectively Modified Immunoconjugates
Published on: March 6, 2019
Solvent-Free Synthesis and Fluorescence of a Thiol-Reactive Sensor for Undergraduate Organic Laboratories
Anastasia L Patterson1, Mary D May1, Bryan J Visser1
1Department of Chemistry, Harvey Mudd College, Claremont, California 91711, United States.
Abstract:
A green organic laboratory experiment was developed in which students synthesize a sensor for thiols using a microscale, solventless Diels-Alder reaction at room temperature or 37 °C. The molecular probe is easily purified by column chromatography in a Pasteur pipet and characterized by thin-layer chromatography and NMR spectroscopy. The thiol-reactive sensor becomes intensely fluorescent upon exposure to thiols from N-acetylcysteine, bovine serum albumin, or human hair (pretreated with a reducing agent to reveal cysteine thiols in α-keratin). This fluorescence is observable even with micrograms of probe.
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