Divinyl sulfone as a cross-linking reagent for oligomeric proteins

The kinetics of the nucleophilic addition reactions of divinyl sulfone to amino groups of glycine and model proteins was studied in aqueous solution at 30 degrees C. The rate constants for glycine, bovine serum albumin, and alpha 1-casein were (4.84 +/- 0.58) x 10(-1), (2.97 +/- 0.31) x 10(-2), and (2.38 +/- 0.49) x 10(-2) M-1s-1, respectively. Divinyl sulfone was proposed as a cross-linking reagent for the qualitative detection of protein association in solution. The cross-linking capacity of divinyl sulfone was compared to that of 1,3,5-triacryloylhexahydro-s-triazine.