Understanding the interactions of trityl radicals with proteins is required to expand their biomedical applications. In this work, we demonstrate that the Finland trityl radical CT-03 binds to bovine serum albumin (BSA) in aqueous solution. Upon binding with BSA, CT-03 exhibits a much broader electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) signal and this line broadening can be reversed by proteolysis of the BSA. The binding induces a red-shift of the maximal UV-Vis absorbance wavelength of CT-03 around 470 nm, likely due to localization of CT-03 in the relatively hydrophobic region of the protein. The interaction between CT-03 and BSA is driven by a hydrophobic interaction with an estimated binding constant of 2.18 ×105 M−1 at 298 K. Furthermore, only one CT-03 is bound to each molecule of BSA and the binding site is determined to be the sub-domain IIA (Sudlow’s site I). This protein binding of the trityl probe to albumin can be used to study the structure and function of albumin and also must be considered for its use as an in vivo imaging agent or spin label.

Simultaneous evaluation redox status and oxygenation in biological systems is of great importance for the understanding of biological functions. Electron paramagnetic resonance spectroscopy coupled with the use of the nitroxide radicals have been an indispensable technique for this application but are still limited by its low oxygen sensitivity, and low EPR resolution in part due to the moderately broad EPR triplet and spin quenching through bioreduction. In this study, we showed that these drawbacks can be overcome through the use of trityl-nitroxide biradicals allowing for the simultaneous measurement of redox status and oxygenation. A new trityl-nitroxide biradical TNN14 composed of a pyrrolidinyl-nitroxide and a trityl, and its isotopically labeled 15N analogue TNN15 were synthesized and characterized. Both biradicals exhibited much stronger spin-spin interaction with J > 400 G than the previous synthesized trityl-nitroxide biradicals TN1 (~160 G) and TN2 (~52 G) with longer linker chain length. The enhanced stability of TNN14 was evaluated using ascorbate as reductant and the effect of different types of cyclodextrins on its stability in the presence of ascorbate was also investigated. Both biradicals are sensitive to redox status, and their corresponding trityl-hydroxylamines resulting from the reduction of the biradicals by ascorbate share the same oxygen sensitivity. Of note is that the 15N-labeled TNN15-H with an EPR doublet exhibits improved EPR signal amplitude as compared to TNN14-H with an EPR triplet. In addition, cyclic voltammetric studies verify the characteristic electrochemical behaviors of the trityl-nitroxide biradicals.

Nanomaterials with enzyme‐mimetic activities are possible alternatives to natural enzymes. Mimicking enzymatic enantioselectivity remains a great challenge. Herein, we report that cysteine‐derived chiral carbon dots (CDs) can mimic topoisomerase I to mediate topological rearrangement of supercoiled DNA enantioselectively. d‐CDs can more effectively catalyze the topological transition of plasmid DNA from supercoiled to nicked open‐circular configuration than l‐CDs. Experiments suggest the underlying mechanism: d‐CDs intercalatively bind with DNA double helix more strongly than l‐CDs; the intercalative CDs can catalyze the production of hydroxyl radicals to cleave phosphate backbone in one strand of the double helix, leading to topological rearrangement of supercoiled DNA. Molecular dynamics (MD) simulation show that the stronger affinity for hydrogen‐bond formation and hydrophobic interaction between d‐cysteine and DNA than that of l‐cysteine is the origin of enantioselectivity.