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Updated: Jul 17, 2025

Bioorthogonal Chemical Imaging of Cell Metabolism Regulated by Aromatic Amino Acids
Published on: May 12, 2023
Introducing Azomethine Imines to Chemical Biology: Bioorthogonal Reaction with Isonitriles
Athanasios Markos1, Maurice Biedermann1, Johannes Heimgärtner1
1Laboratory of Organic Chemistry, ETH Zürich, D-CHAB, Vladimir-Prelog-Weg 3, 8093 Zürich, Switzerland.
Abstract:
Azomethine imines are valuable substrates for chemical synthesis in organic solvents that often require anhydrous conditions. Here, we introduce C,N-cyclic-N'-acyl azomethine imines (AMIs) to bioorthogonal reactions in an aqueous environment. These AMIs are stable under physiological conditions and react rapidly (k2 = 0.1-250 M-1 s-1, depending on pH) and chemoselectively with isonitriles in the presence of biological nucleophiles, including thiols. Live-cell imaging of cell-surface-bound isonitriles underlines the biocompatibility of the AMI-isonitrile ligation, and simultaneous one-pot triple-protein labeling demonstrates its orthogonality to commonly used bioorthogonal reactions, such as the SPAAC and iEDDA ligations.
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