Bioorthogonal Engineering of Cellular Microenvironments Using Isonitrile Ligations.

ABSTRACT: Hydrogels are routinely used as scaffolds to mimic the extracellular matrix for tissue engineering. However, common strategies to covalently crosslink hydrogels employ reaction conditions with potential off-target biological reactivity. The limited number of suitable bioorthogonal chemistries for hydrogel crosslinking restricts how many material properties can be independently addressed to control cell fate. To expand the bioorthogonal toolkit available for hydrogel crosslinking, we identify isonitrile ligations as a promising class of reactions. Isonitriles are compact, stable, selective, and biocompatible moieties that react with chlorooxime (ChO), tetrazine (Tz), and azomethine imine (AMI) functional groups under physiological conditions. We demonstrate that all three ligation reactions

SUBMITTER: Zhou P 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12360401 | biostudies-literature | 2025 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature