Synthesis of a monolithic, micro-immobilised enzyme reactor via click-chemistry

Protein click chemistry and its potential for medical applications

A revolution in chemical biology occurred with the introduction of click chemistry. Click chemistry plays an important role in protein chemistry modifications, providing specific, sensitive, rapid, and easy-to-handle methods. Under physiological conditions, click chemistry often overlaps with bioorthogonal chemistry, defined as reactions that occur rapidly and selectively without interfering with biological processes. Click chemistry is used for the posttranslational modification of proteins based on covalent bond formations. With the contribution of click reactions, selective modification of proteins would be developed, representing an alternative to other technologies in preparing new proteins or enzymes for studying specific protein functions in different biological processes. Click-modified proteins have potential in diverse applications such as imaging, labeling, sensing, drug design, and enzyme technology. Due to the promising role of proteins in disease diagnosis and therapy, this review aims to highlight the growing applications of click strategies in protein chemistry over the last two decades, with a special emphasis on medicinal applications.

Various Strategies in Post-Polymerization Functionalization of Organic Polymer-Based Monoliths Used in Liquid Phase Separation Techniques

This review article is aimed at summarizing the various strategies that have been developed so far for post-polymerization functionalization (PPF) of organic polymer-based monoliths used in liquid phase separation techniques, namely HPLC at all scales and capillary electrochromatography (CEC). The reader will find the organic reactions performed on monolithic columns for grafting the chromatographic ligands needed for solving the separation problems on hand. This process involves therefore the fabrication of template monoliths that carry reactive functional groups to which chromatographic ligands can be covalently attached in a post-polymerization kind of approach. That is, the template monolith that has been optimized in terms of pore structure and other morphology can be readily modified and tailor made on column to fit a particular separation. The review article will not only cover the various strategies developed so far but also describe their separation applications. To the best of our knowledge, this review article will be the first of its kind.

A one-step preparation method of monolithic enzyme reactor for highly efficient sample preparation coupled to mass spectrometry-based proteomics studies

Mass spectrometry (MS) coupled to sample preparation and separation techniques has become a primary tool for proteomics studies. However, due to sample complexity, it is often challenging to achieve fast and efficient sample preparation prior to MS analysis. In recent decades, monolithic materials have been developed not only as chromatographic media, but also as efficient solid supports for immobilizing multiple types of affinity reagents. Herein, the N-acryloxysuccinimide-co-acrylamide-co-N,N'-methylenebisacrylamide (NAS-AAm-Bis) monolith was fabricated within silanized 200 μm i.d. fused-silica capillaries and was used as an immobilized enzyme reactor (IMER). The column was conjugated with trypsin/Lys-C and Lys-N enzymes to allow enzymatic digestions to occur while protein mixture was loaded onto the IMER column followed by MS-based proteomics analysis. Similar MS signal and protein sequence coverage were observed using protein standard bovine serum albumin (BSA) compared to in-solution digestion. Furthermore, mouse serum, yeast, and human cell lysate samples were also subjected to enzymatic digestion by both IMER (in seconds to minutes) and conventional in solution digestion (overnight) for comparison in large-scale proteomics studies. Comparable protein identification results obtained by the two methods highlighted the potential of employing NAS-based IMER column for fast and highly efficient sample preparation for MS analysis in proteomics studies.

Synthesis of a reactive polymethacrylate capillary monolith and its use as a starting material for the preparation of a stationary phase for hydrophilic interaction chromatography

Poly(3-chloro-2-hydroxypropyl methacrylate-co-ethylene dimethacrylate), poly(HPMA-Cl-co-EDMA) capillary monolith was proposed as a reactive starting material with tailoring flexibility for the preparation of monolithic stationary phases. The reactive capillary monolith was synthesized by free radical copolymerization of 3-chloro-2-hydroxypropyl methacrylate (HPMA-Cl) and ethylene dimethacrylate (EDMA). The mean pore size, the specific surface area and the permeability of poly(HPMA-Cl-co-EDMA) monoliths were controlled by adjusting porogen/monomer volume ratio, porogen composition and polymerization temperature. The porogen/monomer volume ratio was found as the most effective factor controlling the porous properties of poly(HPMA-Cl-co-EDMA) monolith. Triethanolamine (TEA-OH) functionalized polymethacrylate monoliths were prepared by using the reactive chloropropyl group of poly(HPMA-Cl-co-EDMA) monolith via one-pot and simple post-functionalization process. Poly(HPMA-Cl-co-EDMA) monolith reacted with TEA-OH was evaluated as a stationary phase in nano-hydrophilic interaction chromatography (nano-HILIC). Nucleotides, nucleosides and benzoic acid derivatives were satisfactorily separated with the plate heights up to 20μm. TEA-OH attached-poly(HPMA-Cl-co-EDMA) monolith showed a reproducible and stable retention behaviour in nano-HILIC runs. However, a decrease in the column performance (i.e. an increase in the plate height) was observed with the increasing retention factor. Hence "retention-dependent column efficiency" behaviour was shown for HILIC mode using the chromatographic data collected with the polymer based monolith synthesized.

Probing the binding site of abl tyrosine kinase using in situ click chemistry

Modern combinatorial chemistry is used to discover compounds with desired function by an alternative strategy, in which the biological target is directly involved in the choice of ligands assembled from a pool of smaller fragments. Herein, we present the first experimental result where the use of in situ click chemistry has been successfully applied to probe the ligand-binding site of Abl and the ability of this enzyme to form its inhibitor. Docking studies show that Abl is able to allow the in situ click chemistry between specific azide and alkyne fragments by binding to Abl-active sites. This report allows medicinal chemists to use protein-directed in situ click chemistry for exploring the conformational space of a ligand-binding pocket and the ability of the protein to guide its inhibitor. This approach can be a novel, valuable tool to guide drug design synthesis in the field of tyrosine kinases.