What is click chemistry? What is it capable of?
Author: Ryan Hsu
Editor: Youhyun (Spany) Noh
Click chemistry sounds simple, but do you know what it is? Click chemistry is a well-understood reaction to quantitatively synthesize step-growth polymers, which are large molecules which slowly growby connection of smaller monomers. It is a process that joins molecular units together easily. The “click” in its name indicates that the reaction happens very fast. It is also considered to be a highly efficient synthetic process, which can be used in different functional groups, and it happens under mild conditions. This reaction is considered to be a very efficient reaction because the reaction takes much less time than any other way to reach the same situation. There are a lot of reactions that can be considered as click chemistry. Click chemistry can be used to connect molecules to another, which can be easier for us to carry out any experiments. For example, the connection between biotin and streptavidin (one of the most efficient molecule pair), the fluorescent molecule is connected to the other side. This can easily be connected to an end of a chain of molecules. This will make it easier to distinguish the result of an experiment.(figure 1 by Man) Most of it is being used on polymerization of subunits. These reactions usually target substances from the polymer community.
The person who discovered it is called Huisgen in the 1950s. However, he did not apply the name “click chemistry” to this reaction. It wasn’t until Sharpless who made the reaction more efficient in 1998 that it got its name “click chemistry”. In 2001, Karl Barry Sharpless, Hartmuth Kolb, and M.G. Finn of The Scripps Research Institute won the Nobel prize because of this discovery.
Click chemistry is already being used in chemoproteomic, pharmacological, and various biomimetic applications. It can be used in connecting unnatural amino acids to proteins, which can be used in modification of nucleotides. This will change a lot on how scientists modify proteins. More and more researchers are using this reaction as a approach to view the result of their experiment. By connecting the product and another molecule which connect to a flourcent protein, the result can be tested sooner and easier.
Reference:
Click chemistry. Click Chemistry - an overview | ScienceDirect Topics. (n.d.). Retrieved April 10, 2022, from https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/chemistry/click-chemistry
Finn, M. G., Kolb, H. C., & Sharpless, K. B. (2022, January 12). Click chemistry connections for Functional Discovery. Nature News. Retrieved April 10, 2022, from https://www.nature.com/articles/s44160-021-00017-w
Horisawa, Kenichi. “Specific and Quantitative Labeling of Biomolecules Using Click Chemistry.” Frontiers, Frontiers, 1 Jan. 1AD, https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fphys.2014.00457/full.
Man, T. P. (n.d.). Click chemistry and its application to proteomics. Retrieved April 10, 2022, from https://info.gbiosciences.com/blog/click-chemistry-and-its-application-to-proteomics
Shirame, S. P., & Bhosale, R. B. (2018, February 28). Chapter: Green Approach in Click Chemistry. IntechOpen. Retrieved April 10, 2022, from https://www.intechopen.com/chapters/58581
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