Signal transduction and amplification through enzyme-triggered ligand release and accelerated catalysis

Article abstract of DOI:10.1039/c5sc01588j

Signal transduction and signal amplification are both important mechanisms used within biological signalling pathways. Inspired by this process, we have developed a signal amplification methodology that utilises the selectivity and high activity of enzymes in combination with the robustness and generality of an organometallic catalyst, achieving a hybrid biological and synthetic catalyst cascade. A proligand enzyme substrate was designed to selectively self-immolate in the presence of the enzyme to release a ligand that can bind to a metal pre-catalyst and accelerate the rate of a transfer hydrogenation reaction. Enzyme-triggered catalytic signal amplification was then applied to a range of catalyst substrates demonstrating that signal amplification and signal transduction can both be achieved through this methodology.

Full text of DOI:10.1039/c5sc01588j

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Signal transduction and amplification through
enzyme-triggered ligand release and accelerated
catalysis†
Cite this: DOI: 10.1039/c5sc01588j
a
b
a
a
*
Sean Goggins, Barrie J. Marsh, Anneke T. Lubben and Christopher G. Frost
Signal transduction and signal amplification are both important mechanisms used within biological signalling
pathways. Inspired by this process, we have developed a signal amplification methodology that utilises the
selectivity and high activity of enzymes in combination with the robustness and generality of an
organometallic catalyst, achieving a hybrid biological and synthetic catalyst cascade. A proligand enzyme
substrate was designed to selectively self-immolate in the presence of the enzyme to release a ligand that
can bind to a metal pre-catalyst and accelerate the rate of a transfer hydrogenation reaction. Enzyme-
triggered catalytic signal amplification was then applied to a range of catalyst substrates demonstrating
that signal amplification and signal transduction can both be achieved through this methodology.
Received 1st May 2015
Accepted 13th June 2015
DOI: 10.1039/c5sc01588j
www.rsc.org/chemicalscience
Despite the high amplication achieved and the thermal
stability of the reagents, these methods suffer from high back-
Introduction
ground reactions due to reagent hydrolysis and long reaction
times.17 As such, there is still a need for stable and selective
reagents that can provide rapid signal amplication.
In nature, living organisms utilise signal transduction and
signal amplication for selective and amplied chemical
responses towards particular stimuli.1 These powerful systems
are used for a number of purposes, such as visual excitation,2
blood clotting,3 and biosignalling.4 Typically, these biological
responses are realised through enzyme cascade mechanisms.5
Naturally, the high signal amplication and rapid response
times of these systems have inspired the development of a range
of versatile, synthetic signal amplication systems for stimuli-
responsive materials,6 supramolecular signalling,7 and
sensing.8 With regard to the latter, approaches towards signal
amplication for sensing vary tremendously with nano-
materials,9 conjugated polymers,10 and supramolecular aggre-
gates,11 all being successfully incorporated into analyte
detection methodologies and achieving low limits of detection.
Recently, the introduction of self-immolative dendrimers,12 has
propelled the development of small molecule-based signal
amplication protocols.13 In particular, the dendritic chain
reaction (DCR) developed by Sella and Shabat,14 and the two-
component system developed by Baker and Phillips,15 have both
demonstrated autoinductive and autocatalytic exponential
signal amplication for the detection of a number of analytes.16
The ability of catalysts to generate multiple product mole-
cules without themselves being chemically altered has seen
them integrated as the amplier component within multiple
signal amplication methodologies.18 Signal amplication by
supramolecular catalysis (SAAC),19 has by far become the most
popular catalytic approach to signal amplication due to the
plethora of supramolecular analyte receptors and synthetic
organometallic catalysts available that can be combined to
create an effective amplied detection assay.20 However, turn-
over numbers are inadequate and the assays oen require the
use of organic solvents under an inert atmosphere. Contrast-
ingly, a range of iridium-based, water-soluble organometallic
complexes have been synthesised and shown to perform a
number of organic transformations “in- or on-water”.21 Iridium-
catalysed transfer hydrogenation in particular, is of signicant
interest due to its low catalytic loading, fast reaction times and
high substrate conversion.22 To the best of our knowledge, these
outstanding catalyst attributes are yet to be harnessed for signal
amplication within a sensing methodology. Herein, we
describe an enzyme-triggered iridium-catalysed transfer
hydrogenation for signal transduction and amplication.
aDepartment of Chemistry, University of Bath, Bath, BA2 7AY, UK. E-mail: C.G.Frost@
bath.ac.uk; Fax: +44 (0)1225 386231; Tel: +44 (0)1225 386142
bAtlas Genetics, Derby Court, Epsom Square, White Horse Business Park, Trowbridge,
Wiltshire, BA14 0XG, UK. E-mail: barrie.marsh@atlasgenetics.com; Tel: +44 (0)1225
717932
Results and discussion
Concept
Inspired by biosignalling enzyme cascades, we designed an
enzyme-activated synthetic catalyst cascade that could be used
for signal transduction and signal amplication purposes
† Electronic supplementary information (ESI) available: Experimental procedures,
compound characterisation data and copies of NMR spectra for novel
compounds. See DOI: 10.1039/c5sc01588j
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differential pulse voltammetry (DPV), revealed that aldehyde 1
and alcohol 2 have considerably different oxidation potentials
(DEox z 300 mV) (Fig. 2). As no peak overlap was observed, peak
integration could be used to calculate reaction conversion
allowing reaction progress to be monitored using ratiometric
electrochemical analysis. Ratiometric sensing has the benet of
obtaining reaction conversions without internal or external
standards, and also minimises errors associated with sampling
and electrode or instrument variations. Thus, the reaction
conversion of the transfer hydrogenation reaction can be
calculated using eqn (1).
Pleasingly, when the literature conditions were applied to
ferrocenecarboxaldehyde 1, the product, ferrocenemethanol 2,
was isolated in 71% yield. By increasing the catalytic loading
and introducing an enzyme-compatible, water-miscible co-
solvent to improve the solubility of the substrate, quantitative
yield was achieved in just 30 minutes at room temperature. In
Fig. 1 Signal amplification concept through enzyme-triggered ligand
release and subsequent ligand-accelerated organometallic catalysis.
(Fig. 1). In principle, this would combine the selectivity and order to further improve catalytic activity under the optimised
high activity of an enzyme plus add the control and scope of a conditions we synthesised and tested a range of ligands with
synthetic catalyst. To gain proof of concept, we initially looked varying aryl substituents (ESI†). Only mesityl-derivative L4
into identifying an efficient catalyst that we could employ as provided any improvement over the previously-used tosyl-
both our signal transducer and signal amplier. Also, we derivative and was subsequently used in all further studies.
required a catalyst that could be selectively switched on in the Importantly, in the absence of any ligand, minimal conversion
presence of an enzyme. One catalytic system that we believed was observed, highlighting the importance of a ligand in order
fullled these criteria was an iridium-based transfer hydroge- to achieve high catalytic activity (Table S1†). Thus, we hypoth-
nation catalyst, which has been shown to efficiently reduce esised that a programmed, selective release of the ligand would
aldehydes in aqueous media.22 Not only this, but the addition of accelerate the transfer hydrogenation reaction in the presence
a ligand was shown to increase the turnover frequency (TOF) of of an enzyme.
!
the catalyst 600-fold, which we could potentially manipulate for
catalyst activation.
Ð
2
ꢀÐ
Ð
ꢁ
Conversion ð%Þ ¼
ꢀ 100
(1)
1 þ
2
To begin our investigation, we looked to use an electroactive
aldehyde as the catalyst substrate as this would allow reaction
progress to be monitored ‘real-time’ through simple electro-
chemical analysis without the need for compound extraction or
isolation. The stability of ferrocene in aqueous media, its
Ligand functionalisation studies towards proligand design
compatibility with biological components and its favourable Enzyme-triggered compound release is typically associated with
electrochemical properties made ferrocenecarboxaldehyde 1 an prodrug methodologies, where active pharmaceutical ingredi-
obvious initial choice.23 Electrochemical analysis of 1, and its ents are manipulated with enzyme-responsive functional
corresponding reduced product, ferrocenemethanol 2, using groups to improve their physical properties as well as their
potency.24 We therefore reasoned that we could combine an
enzyme-cleavable trigger moiety with a self-immolative linker to
design a proligand which would selectively release our opti-
mised ligand in the presence of an enzyme. To achieve a
successful proligand, we rst required further information
regarding the essential components and the limitations of the
ligand. Therefore, we synthesised (ESI†) another set of ligand
derivatives and tested them under the optimised reaction
conditions (Table 1).
Ethylenediamine, along with its mono- and di-methylated
derivatives (Table 1, entries 1–4) were all found to be ineffective
ligands under these conditions. Also, tetramethylethylenedi-
amine (Table 1, entry 5) was shown to completely inhibit the
reaction. Expectedly, the best-performing ligand deduced from
the optimisation, mono-mesityl sulfonamide L4 (Table 1, entry
6), delivered quantitative conversion in 30 minutes, conrming
that a sulfonamide is required for a high reaction rate. Meth-
ylation at the primary amine position of L4 (Table 1, entry 7),
Fig. 2 Differential pulse voltammogram obtained for a mixture of 0.25
mM ferrocenecarboxaldehyde 1 and 0.25 mM ferrocenemethanol 2.
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Table 1 Ligand derivative screen
reaction, leading us to believe that we could release ligand L4
through a quinone-methide elimination mechanism.26
Proligand synthesis and mechanistic studies
Consequently, proligand PL1 was designed (Scheme 1) con-
taining a benzyl carbamate linkage along with a phosphate
functional group as the enzyme-cleavable trigger. A phosphate
trigger enables PL1 to be an appropriate enzyme substrate for
alkaline phosphatase (ALP, EC 3.1.3.1), chosen for its high
catalytic activity, robustness and inexpensive cost.27 ALP is also
a target of interest since abnormal serum levels can be used to
preliminarily diagnose diseases such as bone disease,28 liver
dysfunction,29 breast and prostatic cancer,30 and diabetes.31
Moreover, ALP is commonly used as an enzyme label within
enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays (ELISA) due to its ease of
antibody conjugation allowing for this signal amplication
methodology to be applied to sensitive protein detection.32
The mechanism we propose for this signal amplication
methodology is illustrated in Scheme 1. Initially, selective
dephosphorylation of PL1 by the enzyme ALP should occur and
the resulting phenol intermediate would be unstable in the
alkaline buffered conditions preferred by the enzyme. Subse-
quent 1,6-elimination should then take place releasing carbon
dioxide, quinone methide 3 and ligand L4. Complexation of the
newly released ligand with the iridium precatalyst would
generate the active transfer hydrogenation catalyst 4 and an
accelerated conversion of aldehyde to alcohol should then be
observed.
Entry
Ligand
Conversiona
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
L11
L12
L13
L14
L15
L4
L16
L17
L18
L19
L20
L21
L22
2%
2%
<1%
2%
0%
>99%
34%
6%
0%
0%
The synthesis of PL1 (Scheme 2) was achieved through 1,10-
carbonyldiimidazole (CDI) coupling of previously reported
benzyl alcohol 5,33 and L4 to afford diallyl-protected carbamate
6. Allyl deprotection was then performed through the use of a
polymer-bound palladium catalyst under reductive conditions
and subsequent sodium salt formation furnished proligand PL1
in 64% overall yield. Once isolated, PL1 was found to be an air-
stable solid which can be stored in a vial at room temperature
for several months with any sign of degradation.
9
10
11
12
13
7%
<1%
2%
a
Determined by ratiometric electrochemical analysis.
leads to a drop-off in conversion but interestingly, does not
inhibit the reaction completely. Since a proton is still available
at this position to activate the carbonyl towards attack of the
hydride, this result corresponds with a typical transfer hydro-
genation reaction mechanism.25 Methylation of the sulfon-
amide of L4 (Table 1, entry 8) however, leads to a signicantly
greater drop-off in conversion as functionalisation at this
position removes the acidic sulfonamide proton required for
iridium insertion to form the active catalyst. Unsurprisingly
therefore, both dimethyl derivatives of L4 (Table 1, entries 9 and
10) completely inhibit the transfer hydrogenation reaction with
no conversion at all observed. Clearly, as functionalisation at
the primary amine position of L4 was enough to prevent ligand
acceleration of the catalyst, we next looked at ligands with
alternative functionality at this position. Protecting the primary
amine position as a carbamate (Table 1, entries 11–13), was
indeed found to have a detrimental impact on reaction
conversion. Interestingly, benzyl carbamate derivatives L21 and
L22 exhibit minimal conversion in the transfer hydrogenation
To determine whether proligand PL1 is an appropriate
substrate for ALP, PL1 was subjected to a buffered solution
containing ALP and the interaction monitored by 31P NMR
(Fig. 3). Over time, PL1 was shown to be completely consumed
by the enzyme and simultaneously, the appearance of another
peak corresponding to the phosphate anion, indicated that
enzyme-catalysed hydrolysis of the reagent was indeed occur-
ring. In another experiment, this time in the absence of the
enzyme, the phosphate peak was not observed showing that PL1
is stable towards background hydrolysis and that phosphate
cleavage occurs selectively in the presence of the enzyme. Due to
the need for a proton-saturated buffer solution and the poor
solubility of the ligand L4 in an aqueous solution, we were
unable to detect the free ligand, or any elimination products by
1H NMR.
In order to detect the elimination products, we studied the
reaction using direct infusion Electrospray Time-of-Flight mass
spectrometry (ESI-UHR-TOF MS, negative ion mode). Initially,
an aqueous solution of PL1 was monitored over a ten minute
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Scheme 1 Proposed mechanism for enzyme-triggered ligand release and subsequent ligand-accelerated transfer hydrogenation.
Fig. 3 Stacked 31P NMR plots of PL1 after addition of ALP.
for the phenol intermediate was never observed. This suggests
that elimination to L4 and 3 occurs rapidly under the reaction
Scheme 2 Synthetic route to PL1.
conditions. Together, this data conrms that both dephos-
phorylation of PL1 and subsequent elimination to release L4
occurs selectively in the presence of enzyme, which supports the
enzyme-triggered catalyst activation mechanism we propose.
time-frame and in this period, only the ion corresponding to the
[M ꢁ H]ꢁ of PL1 was observed, and no ion corresponding to
ligand L4 was seen (ESI – Fig. S2†). This conrms the stability of
PL1 to hydrolysis. Then, immediately aer the addition of a
solution of ALP, the appearance of the [M ꢁ H]ꢁ ion corre-
sponding to L4 is seen and this ion is shown to increase with
intensity over time (Fig. 4). Concomitantly, the enzyme
substrate ion decreases in intensity, indicating that enzyme-
catalysed consumption of PL1 and simultaneous production of
L4 is occurring. Additionally, [M ꢁ H]ꢁ ions relating to elimi-
nated linker 3 and 4-hydroxybenzyl alcohol, a result of quinone
methide 3 being trapped by water, are also observed and
intensities for these ions increase slowly over time (ESI –
Fig. S3†). Over the course of the experiment, the [M ꢁ H]ꢁ ion
Enzyme-triggered catalysis
Having established that ligand release occurs selectively as a
direct result of enzyme activity, a number of background reac-
tions were performed to determine if catalyst activation is
attributed to the combination of the presence of the enzyme
and the enzyme substrate (Table 2). In the presence of just the
enzyme and no PL1 (Table 2, entry 1), no conversion of 1 to 2
was observed showing that any ligand-like amino acid side-
chains on the enzyme itself or any enzyme additives such as
amino alcohol-derived stabilisers do not contribute to any
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Fig. 4 Reaction profile of PL1 after addition of ALP monitored by mass
spectrometry.
Table 2 Ligand derivative screen
Fig. 5 Electrochemically-determined reaction profiles under different
catalytic loadings of active catalyst 4.
Encouraged by the efficiency of the transfer hydrogenation of
1 at the higher catalyst loading, we set to electrochemically
monitor enzyme activity over time (Fig. 6). Pleasingly, in the
presence of high concentrations of ALP, conversion of 1 to 2 was
indeed observed. The sigmoidal shape of the conversion curves
indicate a slow catalyst-activation induction period is apparent
until a sufficient number of iridium complexes have been acti-
vated which leads to a pseudo-exponential increase in conver-
Entry
Proligand
ALP
Yielda
1
2
3
0 mol%
2 mol%
2 mol%
100 U mLꢁ1
0 U mLꢁ1
0%
4%
95%
100 U mLꢁ1
sion.
A number of signal amplication methodologies
a
Isolated yield.
previously reported exhibit sigmoidal reaction proles that are
indicative of an exponential-like mechanism being in effec-
t.14a,15a,34 Importantly, in the absence of the enzyme, a minimal
background reaction was observed showing that activation of
the catalytic cascade occurs selectively. This further enhances
the potential of this methodology since no protection, separa-
tion or manipulation of the reagents is required to achieve
successful activation of the catalytic cascade.
To improve the efficiency of the signal amplication cascade
further, we increased the temperature of the system to coincide
with the optimum working temperature of the enzyme.32 This
would not only increase the rate of PL1 consumption but also
increase the rate of the transfer hydrogenation reaction, thus
leading to a much improved signal-amplied response. Indeed,
at these elevated temperatures, much greater conversions were
observed in comparison to the conversions obtained for the
same enzyme concentration at room temperature (Fig. 7). A high
concentration of ALP at 37 ꢂC allows for quantitative conversion
of the transfer hydrogenation reaction to be obtained within 15
minutes. Good conversions are also seen at lower enzyme
concentrations indicating both the excellent sensitivity and good
dynamic range of the catalytic cascade. However, the increase in
temperature also leads to an increase in the background rate,
which is expected since ligand-less iridium pre-catalysts are
known to catalyse the transfer hydrogenation reaction.22a Using
undesired reduction. In the absence of the enzyme, a satisfac-
torily low yield of ferrocenemethanol 2 was obtained in the
presence of just the proligand (Table 2, entry 2). Gratifyingly, in
the presence of both the enzyme and the proligand (Table 2,
entry 3), a near quantitative yield was obtained which we attri-
bute to enzyme-triggered ligand release and ligand-accelerated
catalytic transfer hydrogenation.
With catalyst activity shown only to be activated by both the
enzyme and the enzyme substrate, we next wanted to optimise
the signal amplication cascade using ratiometric electro-
chemical analysis to monitor the cascade. Prior to this however,
electrochemically-derived reaction proles were needed for the
active catalytic species in order to determine the lowest catalytic
loading required to obtain full conversion in the shortest
amount of time. As such, ferrocenecarboxaldehyde 1 was
exposed to different catalytic loadings and the reaction was
sampled every 3 minutes (Fig. 5). At a catalyst loading of 0.5
mol%, only z50% conversion was observed aer 30 minutes.
By doubling the catalyst loading to 1 mol%, quantitative
conversion was able to be obtained within the same timeframe.
Doubling the catalytic loading further to 2 mol% enabled
quantitative conversion to be achieved in less than 6 minutes.
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Table 3 Aldehyde substrate scope
Conversiona
ALP
Entry
1b
Product
0 U mLꢁ1
25 U mLꢁ1
>99%
10%
2%
2b
77%
95%
Fig. 6 Electrochemically-determined reaction profiles under different
concentrations of ALP at room temperature.
3b
2%
the conversions obtained under these conditions aer 3
minutes, a calibration curve was plotted (ESI†). From this, a limit
of detection for this methodology was calculated to be 7.6 pM
aer a reaction time of 3 minutes which is comparable with that
of redox cycling-based amplication methodologies for rapid
electrochemical ALP detection.35
4c
5c
6c
7b
8b
4%
>99%
>99%
>99%
>99%
>99%
20%
21%
11%
13%
9b
14%
>99%
10b
11b
26%
24%
>99%d
>99%
Fig. 7 Electrochemically-determined reaction profiles under different
concentrations of ALP at 37 ꢂC.
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Table 3 (Contd.)
On the whole, signal transduction from enzyme activity to a
range of output signals was successfully performed whilst
maintaining sufficiently low signals in the absence of ALP.
Despite this, we are currently investigating methods to nullify
the background rate to improve the signal-to-noise ratio. Also,
the application of this catalyst cascade to the detection of other
enzymes, as well as proteins via ELISA techniques, is currently
underway.
Conversiona
ALP
Conclusions
In summary, we have successfully developed a biosynthetic
signal transduction and signal amplication methodology by
utilising the selectivity and high activity of an enzyme, in
combination with a water-tolerant organometallic catalyst.
Through simple manipulation of the proligand trigger, this
methodology can be applied towards the detection of a number
of different enzymes as well as other analytes of interest. We
have also shown that selective catalyst activation by an enzyme
can be used to reduce a range of aldehydes allowing the
amplication cascade to be tailored to the desired signal
output. In principle, this technology could easily be used as a
general signal amplication strategy for improving the sensi-
tivity of enzyme detection assays and, by extension, protein
detection assays through enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay
(ELISA) protocols. Additionally, the ability for the system to
process a simple input signal and convert it into an amplied
signal output lends itself towards molecular computing appli-
cations as well as stimuli-responsive materials.
Entry
Product
0 U mLꢁ1
25 U mLꢁ1
12b
8%
75%
a
Conversion determined by 1H NMR. b Reaction conditions: 0.25 mol%
[Ir(cp*Cl2)2], 0.5 mol% PL1, 25 U mLꢁ1 ALP, 0.5 mmol R–CHO, 5 eq.
2ꢁ
NaOOCH, 1 mL EtOH, 1 mL pH 9.8 CO3 buffer, 37 ꢂC, 30 min.
c
Reaction conditions: 0.25 mol% [Ir(cp*Cl2)2], 0.5 mol% PL1, 25 U
mLꢁ21ꢁALP, 1 mmol R–CHO, 5 eq. NaOOCH, 2 mL EtOH, 2 mL pH 9.8
d
CO3 buffer, 37 ꢂC, 30 min. Combined conversion of 20 (75%) and
1,4-benzenedimethanol (25%).
Substrate scope
We next wanted to determine if the catalyst cascade could be
applied to the enzyme-triggered reduction of aldehydes other
than ferrocenecarboxaldehyde. Therefore, the optimised
conditions were then directly applied to a range of different
aldehydes (Table 3). Initially, we looked at catalyst substrates
that could also be used to monitor reaction progress, and
therefore enzyme activity, by means other than electrochem-
istry. First, we evaluated uorophore-containing aldehydes
(Table 3, entries 1–3) as this would allow signal transduction
from enzyme activity to uorescence to be obtained. Pleasingly,
all uorescent aldehydes tested delivered good to quantitative
conversions in the presence of ALP, whilst maintaining a
satisfactorily low background in its absence. Next, we investi-
gated uorine-containing aromatic aldehydes (Table 3, entries
4–6), which would enable 19F NMR to be used to monitor
reaction progress. Again, good to quantitative conversions were
obtained using these benzaldehydes. Electron-withdrawing
substituents upon the aromatic ring (Table 3, entries 5–6) were
found to over-activate the aldehyde towards hydride attack and
a subsequent increase in background reaction is observed. In
contrast, electron-donating groups (Table 3, entries 7–8) were
able to suppress this background reaction. Interestingly, when a
di-aldehyde was used as the catalyst substrate (Table 3, entry
10), the mono-hydrogenated product was found to be the major
product over the di-hydrogenated product in a 3 : 1 ratio.
Aliphatic aldehydes (Table 3, entry 11) are also tolerated, but an
undesirably high background was observed which we attribute
to the high solubility of the substrate in the reaction medium.
Cinnamaldehydes are also reduced efficiently (Table 3, entry 12)
in the presence of ALP with no alkene reduction being observed.
Acknowledgements
We would like to thank Atlas Genetics Ltd. for studentship
funding (S.G.) and for the kind donation of a potentiostat. We
would also like to acknowledge the extensive use of NMR and
MS facilities within the Chemical Characterisation and Analysis
Facility (CCAF) at the University of Bath for compound
characterisation.
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