Suzuki–Miyaura cross-coupling for chemoproteomic applications

Bioorthogonal chemistry is a mainstay of chemoproteomic sample preparation workflows. While numerous transformations are now available, chemoproteomic studies still rely overwhelmingly on copper-catalyzed azide –alkyne cycloaddition (CuAAC) or 'click' chemistry. Here we demonstrate that gel-based activity-based protein profiling (ABPP) and mass-spectrometry-based chemoproteomic profiling can be conducted using Suzuki–Miyaura cross-coupling. We identify reaction conditions that proceed in complex cell lysates and find that Suzuki –Miyaura cross-coupling and CuAAC yield comparable chemoproteomic coverage. Importantly, Suzuki–Miyaura is also compatible with chemoproteomic target deconvolution, as demonstrated using structurally matched probes tailored to react with the cysteine protease caspase-8. Uniquely enabled by the observed orthogonality of palladium-catalyzed cross-coupling and CuAAC, we combine both reactions to achieve dual protein labeling.