Enabling Universal Access to Rapid and Stable Tetrazine Bioorthogonal Probes through Triazolyl-Tetrazine Formation

Despite the immense potential of tetrazine bioorthogonal chemistry in biomedical research, the in vivo performance of tetrazine probes is challenged by the inverse correlation between the physiological stability and reactivity of tetrazines. Additionally, the synthesis of functionalized tetrazines is often complex and requires specialized reagents. To overcome these issues, we present a novel tetrazine scaffold─triazolyl-tetrazine─that can be readily synthesized from shelf-stable ethynyl-tetrazines and azides. Triazolyl-tetrazines exhibit improved physiological stability along with high reactivity. We showcase the effectiveness of this approach by creating cell-permeable probes for protein labeling and live cell imaging, as well as efficiently producing ¹⁸F-labeled molecular probes for positron emission tomography imaging. By utilizing the readily available pool of functionalized azides, we envisage that this modular approach will provide universal accessibility to tetrazine bioorthogonal tools, facilitating applications in biomedicine and materials science.