Esters, conjugated, reaction with amines

The conjugate addition of heteronucleophiles to activated alkenes has been used very often in organic synthesis to prepare compounds with heteroatoms [3 to various activating functional groups, e.g. ketones, esters, nitriles, sulfones, sulfoxides and nitro groups. As in the Michael reaction, a catalytic amount of a weak base is usually used in these reactions (with amines as nucleophiles, no additional base is added). 

We have recently found that unsaturated ( )-ester aldehydes 1 (Scheme 1) quantitatively reacted with primary amines, including lysine, within a very short time ( 5 min) in an extremely diluted organic buffer solution (10 -10 M) to yield 1,2-dihydropyridines as irreversible products through the accelerated 6- r-azaelectrocyclization of the intermediary Schiff base [72, 73]. To the best of our knowledge, our reaction where unsaturated aldehyde 1, for instances, reacts with enzyme to modify several Lys residues within 15 min at room temperature is the fastest conjugation reaction with lysines in water (Fig. 1). We wondered if this reaction would work as a new protocol for Lys labeling. 

Molecules containing phosphate groups, such as the 5 phosphate of oligonucleotides, also may be conjugated to amine-containing molecules by using a carbodiimide-mediated reaction (Chapter 27, Section 2.1). The carbodiimide activates the phosphate to an intermediate phosphate ester similar to its reaction with carboxylates (Chapter 3, Section 1). In the presence of an amine, the ester reacts to form a stable phosphoramidate bond (Reaction 13). 

Figure 5.21 The reaction sequence of crosslinking with sulfo-SANPAH involves first derivatizing an amine-containing molecule using its NHS ester end to create an amide bond. Exposure to UV light then causes ring expansion to the dehydroazepine derivative, which can couple with amines to form the final conjugate.

Use of sulfo-NHS-LC-SPDP or other heterobifunctional crosslinkers to modify PAMAM dendrimers may be done along with the use of a secondary conjugation reaction to couple a detectable label or another protein to the dendrimer surface. Patri et al. (2004) used the SPDP activation method along with amine-reactive fluorescent labels (FITC or 6-carboxytetramethylrhodamine succinimidyl ester) to create an antibody conjugate, which also was detectable by fluorescent imaging. Thomas et al. (2004) used a similar procedure and the same crosslinker to thiolate dendrimers for conjugation with sulfo-SMCC-activated antibodies. In this case, the dendrimers were labeled with FITC at a level of 5 fluorescent molecules per G-5 PAMAM molecule. 

A sulfonyl chloride group rapidly reacts with amines in the pH range of 9-10 to form stable sulfonamide bonds. Under these conditions, it also may react with tyrosine —OH groups, aliphatic alcohols, thiols, and histidine side chains. Conjugates of sulfonyl chlorides with sulf-hydryls and imidazole rings are unstable, while esters formed with alcohols are subject to nucleophilic displacement (Nillson and Mosbach, 1984 Scouten and Van der Tweel, 1984). The only stable derivative with proteins therefore is the sulfonamide, formed by reaction with e-lysine... 

Figure 18.9 NHS-PEG4-maleimide conjugation reactions are carried out in two steps involving modification of an amine-containing molecule with the NHS ester end with subsequent coupling of the maleimide end with a thiol-containing molecule.

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