To date, various affinity-based protein labeling probes have been developed and applied in biological research to modify endogenous proteins in cell lysates and on cell surface. However, the reactive groups on the labeling probes are also the cause of probe instability and nonselective labeling in a more complex environment, e.g. intracellular and in vivo. In this paper, we show that labeling probes composed of a sterically stabilized difluorophenyl pivalate can achieve efficient and selective labeling of endogenous proteins on the cell surface, inside living cells and in vivo. As compared with the existing protein labeling probes, probes with the difluorophenyl pivalate exhibit several advantages, including long term stability in stock solutions, resistant to enzymatic hydrolysis and can be customized easily with diverse fluorophores and protein ligands. With this probe design, endogenous hypoxia biomarker in living cells and nude mice were successfully labeled and validated by in vivo, ex vivo, and immunohistochemistry imaging.
Date:
2021-04-16
Relation:
Chemistry – An Asian Journal. 2021 Apr 19;16(8):937-948.
