FastClick(TM) Digoxigenin (DIG) Azide

FastClick(TM) Digoxigenin (DIG) Azide contains both the CAG moiety of FastClick (for assisting click efficiency) and DIG hapten (as the detection tag) for developing DIG-based probes. It readily reacts with an alkyne-containing biomolecule under extremely mild conditions. DIG is a steroid found exclusively in the flowers and leaves of the plants Digitalis purpurea, Digitalis orientalis and Digitalis lanata. It is a commonly used hapten (a small molecule with high antigenicity) that finds utilities in biological detections similarly to other popular haptens such as 2,4-Dinitrophenol (DNP) and biotin. DIG conjugates and tags are widely used in fluorescence imaging, fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) and other nucleic acid detections. FastClick(TM) reagents have been developed by the scientists of AAT Bioquest for enhancing the yield and reaction speed of copper-catalyzed azide-alkyne cycloaddition (CuAAC) reaction. They contain a copper-chelating ligand that significantly stabilizes the Cu(I) oxidation state and thus accelerates the click reaction. They do not require the use of an external copper-chelator (such as the common THPTA or BTTAA). The high concentration of copper chelators is known to have a detrimental effect on DNA/RNA, thus causing biocompatibility issues. The introduction of a copper-chelating moiety at the reporter molecule allows for a dramatic raise of the effective Cu(I) concentration at the reaction site and thus accelerates the reaction. Under extremely mild conditions the FastClick(TM) azides and alkynes react much faster in high yield compared to the corresponding conventional CuAAC reactions. Click chemistry was developed by K. Barry Sharpless as a robust and specific method of ligating two molecules together. Two important characteristics make click chemistry attractive for assembling biomolecules. First, click reactions are bio-orthogonal, thus the click chemistry-functionalized biomolecules would not react with the natural biomolecules that lack a clickable functional group. Second, the reactions proceed with ease under mild conditions, such as at room temperature and in aqueous media.