"Click ON/OFF" chemistry via sulfonium-activated groups

“点击”反应通过生理上稳定的化学键，选择性地将两个匹配的官能团高效偶联在一起。重要的是，由于“点击”反应可以在温和的条件下进行，它们彻底改变了我们选择性修饰生物来源的复杂分子并制备从其衍生的功能材料的能力。因此，它们既是生物技术和制药部门的理想工具，也是必不可少的工具。例如，生物分子被利用来将人工设备与生物流体(例如，生物传感器)连接起来，或者影响身体的功能(例如，疗法)。我们的研究项目于2013年在加拿大新启动，旨在开发具有上述所有特征的新型“点击”反应，但增加了一个重要的特征--“点击”产品应该能够在精确定义的、但与生理相关的条件下自发分解。目前，还不存在这样的“点击关闭”过程。这样的创新将打破许多机会，方便地制备功能生物材料，并在不降低集成生物成分的情况下触发它们的分解。

“Click” reactions selectively couple together two matching functional groups with high efficiency via a physiologically stable chemical bond. Importantly, because “Click” reactions can be performed under mild conditions, they have revolutionized our ability to selectively modify complex molecules of biological origin and prepare functional materials derived thereof. They are therefore both ideal and essential tools within the biotechnological and pharmaceutical sectors. For example, biomolecules are exploited to interface artificial devices with biological fluids (e.g., biosensors) or to influence the function of the body (e.g., therapeutics). Our research program, newly initiated in Canada in 2013, seeks to develop new types of “Click” reactions that possess all of the characteristics above, but with one important added feature – the “Click” product should be able to spontaneously disassemble under precisely defined, yet physiologically-relevant conditions. Currently, no such “Click OFF” process exists. Such an innovation would unbridle numerous opportunities for conveniently preparing functional biomaterials, and triggering their disassembly without degrading the integrated biological component.