Dansyl aziridine

Substituted aziridines have been used to form homobifunctional and trifunctional crosslinking agents, although their use has been limited (Ross, 1953 Alexander, 1954). The functional group has found use, however, in the design of the fluorescent probe dansyl aziridine (5-dimethylaminonaphthalene-2-sulfonyl aziridine) (Johnson et al., 1978 Grossman et al., 1981). 

A fluorescence enhancement was demonstrated when kynuramine, a substrate for amine oxidase, became bound to the enzyme under anaerobic conditions. Lin has reported that when actin was labelled with dansyl-aziridine at Cys-373 the probe showed a blue shift in the emission maximum consistent with a hydro-phobic environment. Furthermore the excitation spectrum indicated that an L-tryptophanyl and an L-tyrosyl residue were in the near vicinity and that they transfer energy to the dansyl fluorophore. 

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