UC San Diego

Puromycin derivatives containing an emissive thieno[3,4-d]-pyrimidine core, modified with azetidine and 3,3-difluoroazetidine as Me₂ N surrogates, exhibit translation inhibition and bactericidal activity similar to the natural antibiotic. The analogues are capable of cellular puromycylation of nascent peptides, generating emissive products without any follow-up chemistry. The 3,3-difluoroazetidine-containing analogue is shown to fluorescently label newly translated peptides and be visualized in both live and fixed HEK293T cells and rat hippocampal neurons.