Photoactivatable reagents based on aryl(trifluoromethyl)diazirines: Synthesis and application for studying nucleic acid-protein interactions

Abstract

Recent data on the synthesis of photoactivatable derivatives of nucleic acids and proteins on the basis of aryl(trifluoromethyl)diazirines - analogs of nucleosides, nucleotides, oligonucleotides, as well as amino acids and peptides - are reviewed. The synthesis of bi- and polyfunctional photoactivatable reagents, including those containing a cleavable function, designed for postsynthetic modification of biopolymers is described. Data are given on the use of the photoactivatable derivatives for studying nucleic acid-protein interactions by the method of photoaffinity labeling. Special consideration is paid to the results obtained by the authors' team in cooperation with other researchers as well as graduate students of the Chemistry of Natural Products Chair, Chemical Faculty, Moscow State University and destined to solve various scientific tasks in the domain of nucleic acid-protein recognition with the use of photoaffinity crosslinking.