A method of cysteine alkylation using cyclopropenyl ketones is described. Due to the significant release of cyclopropene strain energy, reactions of thiols with cyclopropenyl ketones are both fast and irreversible and give rise to stable conjugate addition adducts. The resulting cyclopropenyl ketones have a low molecular weight and allow for simple attachment of amides via N-hydroxysuccinimide (NHS)-esters. While cyclopropenyl ketones do display slow background reactivity toward water, labeling by thiols is much more rapid. The reaction of a cyclopropenyl ketone with glutathione (GSH) proceeds with a rate of 595 M s in PBS at pH 7.4, which is considerably faster than α-halocarbonyl labeling reagents, and competitive with maleimide/thiol couplings. The method has been demonstrated in protein conjugation, and an arylthiolate conjugate was shown to be stable upon prolonged incubation in either GSH or human plasma. Finally, cyclopropenyl ketones were used to create PEG-based hydrogels that are stable to prolonged incubation in a reducing environment.

The synthesis and Diels-Alder reactions of cyclopropenyl ketones are described. Cyclopropenyl ketones are highly reactive dienophiles that can engage a range of cyclic dienes and 2,3-dimethylbutadiene. The strategy of using cyclopropenyl ketones to facilitate Diels-Alder reactions is not limited to products that contain three-membered rings, as reductive opening by SmI2 can be used to produce a product that lacks a cyclopropane but retains a quaternary stereogenic center.