Recent Advances in Photocatalyst-Driven Protein Labeling and Proximity Mapping

Area of Science:

• Biochemistry
• Chemical Biology
• Photochemistry

Background:

• Photocatalysis offers light-driven control over chemical reactions.
• Visible-light photocatalysis has expanded from small molecules to peptide and protein modification.
• Localized photocatalysts enable proximity labeling for studying biomolecular interactions.

Purpose of the Study:

• To review advances in photocatalyst-enabled protein modification and proximity labeling.
• To highlight diverse photochemical mechanisms used in these applications.
• To showcase applications across various biological systems.

Main Methods:

• Utilizing photocatalysts localized by ligands, antibodies, nanomaterials, or genetic fusion.
• Employing photochemical mechanisms like single-electron transfer, energy transfer, and reactive intermediate generation (radicals, carbenes, nitrenes, singlet oxygen).
• Applying these methods to purified proteins, solid-supported platforms, living cells, tissues, and in vivo systems.

Main Results:

• Demonstrated photocatalysis for selective protein modification under biologically compatible conditions.
• Showcased photocatalytic proximity labeling for probing biomolecular interactions.
• Highlighted the versatility of photocatalysis across different experimental scales.

Conclusions:

• Photocatalysis is a powerful chemical framework for designing proximity labeling tools.
• These tools offer tunable spatial resolution for spatial encoding in biology.
• Photocatalysis enables interrogation of protein interactions in complex biological environments.