Effective and transient mapping of protein–protein interactions: Application of novel releasable photoaffinity linkers

Herein, two novel multifunctional releasable photoaffinity linkers were developed for effective and transient tracking interacting proteins with the overall objective of understanding their in vivo biological functions in real-time. These linkers could be used for the chemical modification of protein under moderate experimental conditions to form protein photoaffinity probes. These probes incorporated with both photoaffinity labels and tag-transfer, enable photo-crosslinking of bait proteins along with the release of unrelated groups. These photoaffinity linkers can be utilized to construct probes for disease markers, which could enable rapid diagnosis in a clinical setting at minimal interference with normal physiology.