Proteins blocking functional groups

The amidine bond formed is quite stable at acid pH however, it is susceptible to hydrolysis and cleavage at high pH. A typical reaction condition for using imidate crosslinkers is a buffer system consisting of 0.2 M triethanolamine in 0.1 M sodium borate, pH 8.2. After conjugating two proteins with a bifunctional imidoester crosslinker, excess imidoester functional groups may be blocked with ethanolamine. 

The relative reactivity of a-haloacetates toward protein functionalities is sulfhydryl > imidazolyl > thioether > amine. Among halo derivatives the relative reactivity is I > Br > Cl > F, with fluorine being almost unreactive. The a-haloacetamides have the same trend of relative reactivities, but will obviously not create a carboxylate functional group. The acetamide derivatives typically are used only as blocking reagents. 

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