Abstract

The chemical synthesis of well-defined, self-assembling semi-synthetic proteins (SSPs) has attracted growing interest in recent years. Approaches such as micelle-assisted protein-labeling technology (MAPLabTech) and supramolecule-assisted protein-labeling technology (SAPLabTech) have been used to generate a wide range of SSPs. The central challenge in synthesizing SSPs is solubilizing a hydrophobic chemical probe in aqueous medium prior to bioconjugation. Both MAPLabTech and SAPLabTech rely on non-covalent interactions to solubilize hydrophobic probes and present certain limitations. The present study introduces a complementary chemical strategy in which a hydrophobic chemical probe is covalently tagged with a cleavable, water-soluble dendritic domain. This covalent tagging renders the probe fully water-soluble, enabling quantitative bioconjugation to yield monomeric semi-synthetic proteins. Subsequent, selective removal of the solubility tag converts the hydrophilic semi-synthetic proteins into facially amphiphilic, semi-synthetic proteins.