Attractive in theory and confirmed to exist, anion-pi interactions have never really been seen at work. To catch them in action, we prepared a collection of monomeric, cyclic and rod-shaped naphthalenediimide transporters. Their ability to exert anion-pi interactions was demonstrated by electrospray tandem mass spectrometry in combination with theoretical calculations. To relate this structural evidence to transport activity in bilayer membranes, affinity and selectivity sequences were recorded. pi-acidification and active-site decrowding increased binding, transport and chloride > bromide > iodide selectivity, and supramolecular organization inverted acetate > nitrate to nitrate > acetate selectivity. We conclude that anion-pi interactions on monomeric surfaces are ideal for chloride recognition, whereas their supramolecular enhancement by pi,pi-interactions appears perfect to target nitrate. Chloride transporters are relevant to treat channelopathies, and nitrate sensors to monitor cellular signaling and cardiovascular diseases. A big impact on organocatalysis can be expected from the stabilization of anionic transition states on chiral pi-acidic surfaces.

The objective of this Feature Article is to reflect on the importance of established and emerging principles of supramolecular organic chemistry to address one of the most persistent problems in life sciences. The main topic is dynamic covalent chemistry on cell surfaces, particularly disulfide exchange for thiol-mediated uptake. Examples of boronate and hydrazone exchange are added for contrast, comparison and completion. Of equal importance are the discussions of proximity effects in polyions and counterion hopping, and more recent highlights on ring tension and ion pair-π interactions. These lessons from supramolecular organic chemistry apply to cell-penetrating peptides, particularly the origin of "arginine magic" and the "pyrenebutyrate trick," and the currently emerging complementary "disulfide magic" with cell-penetrating poly(disulfide)s. They further extend to the voltage gating of neuronal potassium channels, gene transfection, and the delivery of siRNA. The collected examples illustrate that the input from conceptually innovative chemistry is essential to address the true challenges in biology beyond incremental progress and random screening.

This critical review covers progress with synthetic transport systems, particularly ion channels and pores, between January 2006 and December 2009 in a comprehensive manner. This is the third part of a series launched in the year 2000, covering a rich collection of structural and functional motifs that should appeal to a broad audience of non-specialists, including to organic, biological, supramolecular and polymer chemists. Impressive breakthroughs have been achieved over the past four years in part because of a fruitful expansion toward new types of interactions, including metal-organic, π-π, aromatic electron donor-acceptor, anion-π or anion-macrodipole interactions as well as dynamic covalent bonds (169 references).

The delivery of materials for genetic engineering with transitory activity constitutes a promising field in biology and medicine with potential applications in the treatment of disease, from cancer and infectious diseases to inheritable disorders. The possibility to restore the expression of a missing protein, the potential correction of the splicing of defective genes, or the silencing or modulation of the expression of other genes constitute powerful tools that will have a great impact in the future of biology and medicine. Impressive progress has been made in the last decade, with several products reaching the market as novel technologies for gene editing emerge. However, the transference of these technologies to functional therapies is hindered by the suboptimal performance of vehicles in capturing, protecting and delivering the corresponding nucleotide cargoes with safety and efficacy.Chemistry and the chemical sciences will play a key role in the development of the innovative synthetic materials that will overcome the upcoming challenges of the next generation gene delivery therapies and protocols. In this review we address the newest chemical advances in the production of materials at the forefront of nucleotide cell delivery and gene therapy.

CONSPECTUS Compartmentalization and isolation from external media facilitates the sophisticated functionality and connectivity of all the different biological processes accomplished by living entities. The lipid bilayer membranes are the dynamic structural motifs selected by Nature to individualize cells and keep ions, proteins, biopolymers and metabolites confined in the appropriate location. However, cellular interaction with the exterior and the regulation of its internal environment requires the assistance of minimal energy short cuts for the transport of molecules across membranes. Ion channels and pores stand out from all other possible transport mechanisms due to their high selectivity and efficiency in discriminating and transporting ions or molecules across membrane barriers. Nevertheless, the complexity of these smart “membrane holes” has been a significant driving force to develop artificial structures with comparable performance to the natural systems. The emergence of the broad range of supramolecular interactions as efficient tools for the rational design and preparation of stable 3D superstructures has boosted the possibilities and stimulated the creativity of chemists to design synthetic mimics of natural active macromolecules and even to develop artificial functions and properties. In this account we highlight results from our laboratories on the construction of artificial ion channel models that exploit the self-assembling of flat cyclic peptides into supramolecular nanotubes. The straightforward synthesis of the cyclic peptide monomers and the complete control over the internal diameter and external surface properties of the resulting hollow tubular suprastructure make CPs the optimal candidates for the fabrication of ion channels. Ion channel activities and selective transport of small molecules are examples of the huge potential of cyclic peptide nanotubes for the construction of functional transmembrane ion channels or pores. Our experience to date suggests that the topological control over cyclic peptide assembly together with the lumen functionalization should be the next steps to achieve conceptual devices with better performance and selectivity.

The objective of this study was to introduce differential sensing techniques to synthetic systems that act, like olfactory receptors, as transporters in lipid bilayer membranes. Routine with most alternative chemosensing ensembles, pattern generation has, quite ironically, remained inaccessible in lipid bilayers because the number of available crossresponsive sensor components has been insufficient. To address this challenge, we here report on the use of cationic hydrazides that can react in situ with hydrophobic analytes to produce cationic amphiphiles which in turn can act as countercation activators for polyanionic transporters in fluorogenic vesicles. To expand the dimension of signals generated by this system, a small collection of small peptides containing a positive charge (guanidinium, ammonium) and one to three reactive hydrazides are prepared. Odorants are used as examples for hydrophobic analytes, perfumes to probe compatibility with complex matrices, and counterion-activated calf-thymus DNA as representative polyion–counterion transport system. Principal component and hierarchical cluster analysis of the obtained multidimensional patterns are shown to differentiate at least 21 analytes in a single score plot, discriminating also closely related structures such as enantiomers, cis–trans isomers, single-atom homologs, as well as all tested perfumes. Inverse detection provides access to analytes as small as acetone. The general nature of the introduced methodology promises to find diverse applications in current topics in biomembrane research

The membrane translocation of hydrophilic substances constitutes a challenge for their application as therapeutic compounds and labelling probes1–4. To remedy this, charged amphiphilic molecules have been classically used as carriers3,5. However, such amphiphilic carriers may cause aggregation and non-specific membrane lysis6,7. Here we show that globular dodecaborate clusters, and prominently B12Br122−, can function as anionic inorganic membrane carriers for a broad range of hydrophilic cargo molecules (with molecular mass of 146–4,500 Da). We show that cationic and neutral peptides, amino acids, neurotransmitters, vitamins, antibiotics and drugs can be carried across liposomal membranes. Mechanistic transport studies reveal that the carrier activity is related to the superchaotropic nature of these cluster anions8–12. We demonstrate that B12Br122− affects cytosolic uptake of different small bioactive molecules, including the antineoplastic monomethyl auristatin F, the proteolysis targeting chimera dBET1 and the phalloidin toxin, which has been successfully delivered in living cells for cytoskeleton labelling. We anticipate the broad and distinct delivery spectrum of our superchaotropic carriers to be the starting point of conceptually distinct cell-biological, neurobiological, physiological and pharmaceutical studies.

Despite recent developments in two-dimensional self-assembly, most supramolecular 2D materials are assembled by tedious methodologies, with complex surface chemistry and small sizes. We here report D/L-alternating cyclic peptides that undergo one-dimensional self-assembly into amphiphilic nanotubes, which subsequently arrange as tubular bilayers to form giant nanosheets in the mesoscale. Reversible transitions between the assembled, dispersed and aggregated states of these nanosheets can be triggered by external stimuli. The characteristic flexibility, defined chemical topology and length scale of these nanosheets set a clear distinction between this new supramolecular architecture and previously reported 2D nanostructures. The sequential 1D-to-2D self-assembly of peptides described here provides a conceptually new approach to achieve two-dimensional materials with hierarchical organisation. These giant nanosheets represent one of the largest 2D supramolecular materials ever made, with potential application as long-range molecular transporters, responsive surfaces and (bio)sensors. RESULTS Supramolecular design Cyclic peptides with an even number of amino acids and alternating D/L-chirality stack on top of one another to form hollow self-assembled cyclic peptide nanotubes