LAUSR

Abstract Light is arguably the most convenient non-invasive stimulant to perturb or control specific chemical reactions in the biological systems. Upon light illumination, photosensitive molecules incur conformational changes or formation/breaking of chemical bonds. Consequently, these molecules can be used to transfer signals from one location to another in the cell, from outside of the cell to the inside, or from a light bulb to the interior of animal tissues. The development of the photochemical reactions of organic compounds has paved the road towards their use in peptides and peptide-based biological applications. In this mini-review, we summarized the state-of-the-art development of photo-protecting groups for peptide photocaging including the un-caging mechanism of different PPGs, the synthesis of photo-caged peptides, and the recent applications of peptide photocaging in chemical biology.