Dinitroimidazoles as bifunctional bioconjugation reagents for protein functionalization and peptide macrocyclization

Efficient and site-specific chemical modification of proteins under physiological conditions remains a challenge. Here we report that 1,4-dinitroimidazoles are highly efficient bifunctional bioconjugation reagents for protein functionalization and peptide macrocyclization. Under acidic to neutral aqueous conditions, 1,4-dinitroimidazoles react specifically with cysteines via a cine-substitution mechanism, providing rapid, stable and chemoselective protein bioconjugation. On the other hand, although unreactive towards amine groups under neutral aqueous conditions, 1,4-dinitroimidazoles react with lysines in organic solvents in the presence of base through a ring-opening & ring-close mechanism. The resulting cysteine- and lysine-(4-nitroimidazole) linkages exhibit stability superior to that of commonly employed maleimide-thiol conjugates. We demonstrate that 1,4-dinitroimidazoles can be applied in site-specific protein bioconjugation with functionalities such as fluorophores and bioactive peptides. Furthermore, a bisfunctional 1,4-dinitroimidazole derivative provides facile access to peptide macrocycles by crosslinking a pair of cysteine or lysine residues, including bicyclic peptides of complex architectures through highly controlled consecutive peptide macrocyclization.