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Updated: Jul 29, 2025

Design, Synthesis, and Photochemical Properties of Clickable Caged Compounds
Published on: October 15, 2019
A Concise Synthetic Approach to Highly Reactive Click-to-Release Trans-Cyclooctene Linkers
Bing Liu1, Wolter Ten Hoeve2, Ron M Versteegen3
1Tagworks Pharmaceuticals, Toernooiveld 1, 6525 ED, Nijmegen, The Netherlands.
Abstract:
An increase in the click-to-release reaction rate between cleavable trans-cyclooctenes (TCO) and tetrazines would be beneficial for drug delivery applications. In this work, we have developed a short and stereoselective synthesis route towards highly reactive sTCOs that serve as cleavable linkers, affording quantitative tetrazine-triggered payload release. In addition, the fivefold more reactive sTCO exhibited the same in vivo stability as current TCO linkers when used as antibody linkers in circulation in mice.
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