A Cysteine-Reactive Small Photo-Crosslinker Possessing Caged-Fluorescence Properties: Binding-Site Determination of a Combinatorially-Selected Peptide by Fluorescence Imaging/Tandem Mass Spectrometry

To determine the binding-site of a combinatorially-selected peptide possessing a fluoroprobe, a novel cysteine reactive small photo-crosslinker that can be excited by a conventional long-wavelength ultraviolet handlamp (365 nm) was synthesized via Suzuki coupling with three steps. The crosslinker is rationally designed, not only as a bioisostere of the fluoroprobe, but as a caged-fluorophore, and the photo-crosslinked target protein became fluorescent with a large Stokes-shift. By introducing the crosslinker to a designated sulfhydryl (SH) group of a combinatorially-selected peptide, the protein-binding site of the targeted peptide was deduced by sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE)/fluorescence imaging followed by matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization-time of flight tandem mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOF-MS/MS) analysis.