The emerging inverse electron demand Diels–Alder (IEDDA) reaction stands out from other bioorthogonal reactions by virtue of its unmatchable kinetics, excellent orthogonality and biocompatibility. With the recent discovery of novel dienophiles and optimal tetrazine coupling partners, attention has now been turned to the use of IEDDA approaches in basic biology, imaging and therapeutics. Here we review this bioorthogonal reaction and its promising applications for live cell and animal studies. We first discuss the key factors that contribute to the fast IEDDA kinetics and describe the most recent advances in the synthesis of tetrazine and dienophile coupling partners. Both coupling partners have been incorporated into proteins for tracking and imaging by use of fluorogenic tetrazines that become strongly fluorescent upon reaction. Selected notable examples of such applications are presented. The exceptional fast kinetics of this catalyst-free reaction, even using low concentrations of coupling partners, make it amenable for in vivo radiolabelling using pretargeting methodologies, which are also discussed. Finally, IEDDA reactions have recently found use in bioorthogonal decaging to activate proteins or drugs in gain-of-function strategies. We conclude by showing applications of the IEDDA reaction in the construction of biomaterials that are used for drug delivery and multimodal imaging, among others. The use and utility of the IEDDA reaction is interdisciplinary and promises to revolutionize chemical biology, radiochemistry and materials science.

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Inverse electron demand Diels–Alder reactions in chemical biology

Bioorthogonal chemistries can be used to tag diverse classes of biomolecules in cells and other complex environments. With over 20 unique transformations now available, though, selecting an appropriate reaction for a given experiment is challenging. In this article, we compare and contrast the most common classes of bioorthogonal chemistries and provide a framework for matching the reactions with downstream applications. We also discuss ongoing efforts to identify novel biocompatible reactions and methods to control their reactivity. The continued expansion of the bioorthogonal toolkit will provide new insights into biomolecule networks and functions and thus refine our understanding of living systems.

Finding the Right (Bioorthogonal) Chemistry

Anticancer polysaccharides from natural resources: A review of recent research

Despite originating only a little more than a decade ago, click chemistry has become one of the most powerful paradigms in materials science, synthesis, and modification. By developing and implementing simple, robust chemistries that do not require difficult separations or harsh conditions, the ability to form, modify, and control the structure of materials on various length scales has become more broadly available to those in the materials science community. As such, click chemistry has seen broad implementation in polymer functionalization, surface modification, block copolymer and dendrimer synthesis, biomaterials fabrication, biofunctionalization, and in many other areas of materials science. Here, the basic reactions, approaches, and applications of click chemistry in materials science are highlighted, and a brief look is taken into the future enabling developments in this field.

Click Chemistry in Materials Science

Antitumor polysaccharides from mushrooms: a review on the structural characteristics, antitumor mechanisms and immunomodulating activities.

Protein glycosylation is a complex form of posttranslational modification and has been shown to be crucial for the function of many proteins. Sialic acid is prominently positioned at the outer end of membrane glycoproteins. It plays a critical role for the regulation of a myriad of cellular functions and it forms a shield around the cell. Furthermore, it constantly interacts with the environment of cells and contributes to histocompatibility. This makes studying sialylation an interesting field of research, but monitoring sialic acid in vivo is challenging. While proteins are routinely labeled by genetic methods, such as expression as GFP fusion proteins, comparable methods are not available for secondary gene products, such as glycans of glycoconjugates. Metabolic oligosaccharide engineering (MOE) is a successful new strategy to visualize the localization of glycans in vitro and in vivo. In this approach, cells are cultivated in the presence of non-natural monosaccharide derivatives that carry a chemical reporter group and are nonetheless accepted by the biosynthetic machinery of a cell. For instance, peracetylated N-azidoacetylmannosamine (Ac4ManNAz) is taken up by the cell, deacetylated by cellular esterases, and owing to the promiscuity of the enzymes of sialic acid biosynthesis, is converted into N-azidoacetyl neuraminic acid and incorporated into sialoglycoconjugates. Once presented on the cell surface, the azide-containing sialylated glycan can be visualized through a bioorthogonal ligation reaction. Besides Ac4ManNAz, several monosaccharide derivatives of N-acetylgalactosamine, N-acetylglucosamine, and l-fucose are suitable for MOE providing further insights into the role of cellular structures and functions of glycans in the cell. Currently, mainly Staudinger ligation and azide–alkyne [3+2] cycloaddition (copper-catalyzed or strain-promoted, also known as the click reaction) are applied as ligation reactions in MOE. However, both of them rely on the reaction of azides and thus cannot be used for the concurrent detection of two different metabolically incorporated carbohydrates. A labeling strategy that can be carried out in the presence of azides and alkynes would significantly expand the scope of chemical labeling reactions in living cells and is thus highly desirable. Recently, it was shown that the Diels–Alder reaction with inverse electron demand (DARinv) of 1,2,4,5-tetrazines with strained dienophiles, such as trans-cyclooctenes, cyclobutenes, norbornenes, 13] cyclooctynes, and substituted cyclopropenes, fulfills the requirements of a bioorthogonal ligation reaction and furthermore is orthogonal to the azide–alkyne cycloaddition. However, these cyclic alkenes or kinetically stable tetrazines are expected to be too large for being efficiently metabolized by the sialic acid biosynthetic pathway, starting from the corresponding Nacylmannosamine derivative. In search for smaller dienophiles suitable for MOE, we identified monosubstituted (terminal) alkenes as a new class of chemical reporters. We recently reported the successful application of the DARinv between terminal alkenes and 1,2,4,5-tetrazines in the preparation of carbohydrate microarrays. The fact that terminal alkenes are hardly found in biological systems and are completely absent in proteins makes them a promising reporter group. Herein, we show that ManNAc derivatives containing a terminal alkene in the acyl side chain are metabolically incorporated into cell-surface sialic acids and can subsequently be labeled by the DARinv (Figure 1). Moreover, we demonstrate that double labeling of two differently modified, metabolically incorporated monosaccharides is possible by combining the DARinv with strainpromoted azide–alkyne cycloaddition (SPAAC). As the reaction rate of the DARinv of acyclic olefins with tetrazines is very sensitive to steric hindrance, double bonds with more than one substituent react very slowly. Terminal alkenes, on the other hand, can react rapidly without any further activation. This prompted us to design mannosamine derivatives 2 and 4 (Figure 2) that were synthesized in three steps from mannosamine hydrochloride (see the Supporting Information). Based on previous work by Keppler et al., we expected both derivatives to be accepted by cells with Npentenoylmannosamine 2 (owing to the shorter acyl side chain) being incorporated with higher efficiency. On the other [*] Dipl.-Chem. A. Niederwieser, M. Sc. A.-K. Sp te, M. Sc. C. J ngst, Prof. Dr. V. Wittmann University of Konstanz, Department of Chemistry and Konstanz Research School Chemical Biology (KoRS-CB) 78457 Konstanz (Germany) E-mail: mail@valentin-wittmann.de

Long Duc Nguyen

Papers

Two‐Color Glycan Labeling of Live Cells by a Combination of Diels–Alder and Click Chemistry

GLIS, a bioactive proteoglycan fraction from Ganoderma lucidum, displays anti-tumour activity by increasing both humoral and cellular immune response.

Zweifarbenmarkierung von Glycanen lebender Zellen durch Kombination von Diels‐Alder‐ und Klick‐Chemie

Crystal Structures of N-Acetylmannosamine Kinase Provide Insights into Enzyme Activity and Inhibition