Supramolecular Pt(ii) quadrangular boxes bind native and G-quadruplex DNA motifs in a size-dependent fashion. Three Pt molecular squares of distinct size show biological activity against cancer cells and heavily influence the expression of genes known to form G-quadruplexes in their promoter regions. The smallest Pt-box displays less activity but more selectivity for a quadruplex formed in the c-Kit gene.

Metal‐driven self‐assembly afforded a multitude of fascinating supramolecular coordination complexes (SCCs) with applications as catalysts, host–guest, and stimuli‐responsive systems. However, the interest in the biological applications of SCCs is only starting to emerge and thorough characterization of their behavior in biological milieus is still lacking. Herein, we report on the synthesis and detailed in‐cell tracking of a Pt 2 L 2 metallacycle. We show that our hexagonal supramolecule accumulates in cancer cell nuclei, exerting a distinctive blue fluorescence staining of chromatin resistant to UV photobleaching selectively in nucleolar G4‐rich regions. SCC co‐localizes with epitopes of the quadruplex‐specific antibody BG4 and replaces other well‐known G4 stabilizers. Moreover, the photophysical changes accompanying the metallacycle binding to G4s in solution (fluorescence quenching, absorption enhancement) also take place intracellularly, allowing its subcellular interaction tracking.

para-positions with the two enantiomers of either -hydroxy-phenylacetic acid (1) and -chloro--phenylacetic acid (S-2) linked through an anilide bond. These monomers were further polymerized, and their secondary structure and dynamic behavior analyzed. Compiling information from these studies, and the structural data for other PPAs found in literature, we can state that anilide linkages in p-substituted polymers tend to generate compressed cis-cisoidal polyene structures, which can be transformed into more elongated cis-transoidal ones by external stimuli, while benzamide linkages in p-substituted polymers form mainly cis-transoidal scaffolds. The macromolecular structure of PPAs is also largely affected by the aromatic substitution pattern, adopting more stretched scaffolds once the pendant group is placed in meta or ortho positions, due to the steric hindrance generated by placing this group closer to the backbone.

We present here the design and synthesis of a series of multicomponent supramolecular architectures, structures formed by the Pd /Pt -directed integrative social self-sorting in aqueous media of pairs of complementary N-monoalkyl-4,4'-bipyridinium/2,7-diazapyrenium-based ligands. Out of the different potential outcomes of the processes, we have found out how the designed systems selectively enhance the production of pseudo[1]rotaxanes, hermaphroditic host-guest aggregates that maximize the strength of the occurring π-π, C-H⋅⋅⋅π, and hydrophobic interactions, as well as the number of those interactions per receptor. It is also demonstrated how both integrative social and narcissistic Pd -directed self-sorting can occur orthogonally and concomitantly for this type of ditopic ligands.