One-Step Conversion of NHS Esters to Reagents for Site-Directed Labeling of IgG Antibodies

Antibody conjugates are extensively used for diagnostics and therapeutics, and as a tool for molecular biology. To prepare such conjugates N-hydroxysuccinimide (NHS) esters are most often used due to the straightforward experimental procedure and the commercial accessibility of the reagents. Such conjugates are however highly heterogeneous, since only the reactivity of the lysines determines the distribution of labels. This has inspired the development of methods that experimentally are as facile but produce conjugates of higher quality. Herein, we report the development of a reagent that can, in one step, be activated with an NHS ester of choice and subsequently can be directly used for site-directed labeling of antibodies. The reagent can be prepared in three synthetic steps and produces conjugates with similar ease as for NHS esters, however in a site-directed manner. We show that the reagent is quantitatively activated by a variety of NHS esters, and we use these to functionalize IgG1, IgG2, and IgG4 antibodies.