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Updated: Dec 12, 2025

Harnessing the Bioorthogonal Inverse Electron Demand Diels-Alder Cycloaddition for Pretargeted PET Imaging
Published on: February 3, 2015
Transition-Metal-Mediated versus Tetrazine-Triggered Bioorthogonal Release Reactions: Direct Comparison and
Francesca Mancuso1, Michal Rahm2, Rastislav Dzijak2
1University of Messina, Department of Chemical, Biological Pharmaceutical and Environmental Sciences (CHIBIOFARAM), Viale Palatucci 13, I-98168, Messina, Italy.
Abstract:
Bioorthogonal cleavage reactions are gaining popularity in chemically inducible prodrug activation and in the control of biomolecular functions. Despite similar applications, these reactions were developed and optimized on different substrates and under different experimental conditions. Reported herein is a side-by-side comparison of palladium-, ruthenium- and tetrazine-triggered release reactions, which aims at comparing the reaction kinetics, efficiency and overall advantages and limitations of the methods. In addition, we disclose the possibility of mutual combination of the cleavage reactions. Finally, we compare the efficiency of the bioorthogonal deprotections in cellular experiments, which revealed that among the three methods investigated, the palladium- and the tetrazine-promoted reaction can be used for efficient prodrug activation, but only the tetrazine-triggered reactions proceed efficiently inside cells.
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