Doubly Caged Linker for AND-Type Fluorogenic Construction of Protein/Antibody Bioconjugates and In Situ...

In situ quantification of the conjugation efficiency of azide-terminated synthetic polymers/imaging probes and thiol-functionalized antibodies/proteins/peptides was enabled by a doubly caged profluorescent and heterodifunctional core molecule C1 as a self-sorting bridging unit. Orthogonal dual "click" coupling of C1 with azide- and thiol-functionalized precursors led to highly fluorescent bioconjugates, whereas single-click products remained essentially nonfluorescent. Integration with FRET processes was also possible. For the construction of antibody-probe conjugates from an anti-carcinoembryonic antigen and a quinone-caged profluorescent naphthalimide derivative, the dual "click" coupling process with C1 was monitored on the basis of the emission turn-on of C1, whereas prominent changes in FRET ratios occurred for antibody-imaging-probe conjugates when specifically triggered by quinone oxidoreductase (NQO1), which is overexpressed in various types of cancer cells.