Ether bond cleavage in an arylazido photoaffinity probe induced by ultraviolet light

Synthesis of tag introducible (3-trifluoromethyl)phenyldiazirine based photoreactive phenylalanine

An efficient synthesis of tag introducible (3-trifluoromethyl)phenyldiazirine based phenylalanine derivatives is described. Alkylation of a chiral glycine equivalent with a spacer containing (3-trifluoromethyl)phenyldiazirinyl bromides enables us to create photoreactive L-phenylalanine derivatives. After introduction of biotin at the spacer, the biotinylated and photoreactive amino acid was applied for L-amino acid oxidase and incorporated into a substrate binding site. These compounds will be powerful tools not only for photoaffinity labeling to elucidate properties of bioactive peptides but also as trifunctional photophors to introduce a ligand skeleton.