Metal complex catalysis within biological systems is largely limited to cell and bacterial systems. In this work, a glycoalbumin-Au complex was designed and developed that enables organ-specific, localized propargyl ester amidation with nearby proteins within live mice. The targeted reactivity can be imaged through the use of Cy7.5- and TAMRA-linked propargyl ester based fluorescent probes. This targeting system could enable the exploitation of other metal catalysis strategies for biomedical and clinical applications.

Metal complex catalysis within biological systems is largely limited to cell and bacterial systems.I nt his work, ag lycoalbumin-Au III complex was designed and developed that enables organ-specific,l ocalized propargyl ester amidation with nearby proteins within live mice.T he targeted reactivity can be imaged through the use of Cy7.5-and TAMRA-linked propargyl ester based fluorescent probes.This targeting system could enable the exploitation of other metal catalysis strategies for biomedical and clinical applications.

This work represents the first broad study of testing diverse heterogenous glycoconjugates (7 different glycoalbumins) for their differential in vivo binding (11 different cancer cell types) in both cell- and animal-based studies. As a result, various changes in biodistribution, excretion, and even tumor adhesion were observed.