Chemo- and Site-Selective Lysine Modification of Peptides and Proteins under Native Conditions Using the Water-Soluble Zolinium

Abstract

Site-selective lysine modification of peptides and proteins in aqueous solutions or in living cells is still a big challenge today. Here, we report a novel strategy to selectively quinolylate lysine residues of peptides and proteins under native conditions without any catalysts using our newly developed water-soluble zoliniums. The zoliniums could site-selectively quinolylate K350 of bovine serum albumin and inactivate SARS-CoV-2 3CL^pro <i>via</i> covalently modifying two highly conserved lysine residues (K5 and K61). In living HepG2 cells, it was demonstrated that the simple zoliniums (<b>5b</b> and <b>5B</b>) could quinolylate protein lysine residues mainly in the nucleus, cytosol, and cytoplasm, while the zolinium-fluorophore hybrid (<b>8</b>) showed specific lysosome-imaging ability. The specific chemoselectivity of the zoliniums for lysine was validated by a mixture of eight different amino acids, different peptides bearing potential reactive residues, and quantum chemistry calculations. This study offers a new way to design and develop lysine-targeted covalent ligands for specific application.