Manipulating the Click Reactivity of Dibenzoazacyclooctynes: From Azide Click Component to Caged Acylation Reagent by Silver Catalysis

Strain-promoted azide-alkyne cycloaddition using dibenzoazacyclooctyne (DBCO) is widely applied in copper-free bioorthogonal reactions. Reported here is the efficient acid-promoted rearrangement and silver-catalyzed amidation of DBCO, which alters its click reactivity robustly. In the switched click reaction, DBCO, as a caged acylation reagent, enables rapid peptide/protein modification after decaging facilitated by silver catalysts, rendering site-specific conjugation of an IgG antibody by a Fc-targeting peptide.