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Updated: Jan 29, 2026

Synthesis of Protein Bioconjugates via Cysteine-maleimide Chemistry
Published on: July 20, 2016
A Maleimide-functionalized Tetraphenylethene for Measuring and Imaging Unfolded Proteins in Cells
Shouxiang Zhang1, Mengjie Liu1, Lewis Yi Fong Tan1
1Department of Chemistry and Physics, La Trobe Institute for Molecular Science, La Trobe University, Melbourne, VIC 3086, Australia.
Abstract:
Collapse of the protein homeostasis (proteostasis) can lead to accumulation and aggregation of unfolded proteins, which has been found to associate with a number of disease conditions including neurodegenerative diseases, diabetes and inflammation. Here we report a maleimide-functionalized tetraphenylethene (TPE)-derivatized fluorescent dye, TPE-NMI, which shows fluorescence turn-on property upon reacting with unfolded proteins in vitro and in live cells under proteostatic stress conditions. The level of unfolded proteins can be measured by flow cytometry and visualized with confocal microscopy.
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