Artificial Anion Transporters in Bilayer Membranes

Abstract

Anion transport across phospholipid membrane is a typical supramolecular function involving dynamic recognition of the substrate during the whole translocation process. Supramolecular chemists, taking inspiration by the natural anion transporters, have designed artificial systems able to mimic, at the functional level, several features of the natural ion channels. The scope of this research is twofold: on one hand to get insight on the molecular basis of recognition and transport, and on the other hand to get control of the biomedical relevant processes. The present review focuses on the synthetic systems promoting anion transport, covering both artificial channels and carriers that operate in phospholipid membrane. The design principles of such systems will be discussed together with the potential biomedical applications.

The water-channel forming ability of heptapeptide-based anion channels: insights from molecular dynamics simulations

“…A number of reviews on synthetic ion transporters along with a discussion of pertinent design criteria have been published. [10][11][12][13][14][15][16][32][33][34][35][36] Similar to the SCMTR class of compounds, cyclic peptide nanotubes rely on the amino acids as the primary building block, and function through a stacking mechanism. [37][38][39][40][41][42][43][44] Acyclic compounds like isophthalamides 45,46 and dianilides 47 are also thought to stack in order to function as a channel.…”

“…Reviews related to the development of synthetic ioncomplexation and transport compounds offer insight into the rationale behind their design. [9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16] The remainder of this section will be divided into two parts; rst, a discussion about the class of compounds that was modeled in this paper, followed by a discussion of other anion-complexing or channel-forming compounds for comparison.…”

Recent synthetic transport systems

“…1,2 This series complements excellent reviews of the topic from other groups [3][4][5] as well as more focused accounts and highlights on specific topics. [6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14] After briefly reiterating essential terms, definitions and methods in the introduction, we continue with the traditional, completely subjective prelude on new sources of inspiration, this time on the expansion of our repertoire of interactions available to create function. The main part of the review takes off with one of the highlights of this period, that is the introduction of metal-organic architectures.…”

Study of receptor mediated selective anion transmembrane transport using parallel artificial membrane permeability assay

“…Though passive transport is still thought to be the dominant mechanism, membrane transport of many compounds including saccharides, amino acids and ions is controlled by proteins. 1 There are plenty of articial transmembrane transporters of charged solutes 2,3 based on the formation of supramolecular complexes between a selector and ions in solution. Consequently, there is an increasing need for effective and quick testing of the efficiency of selectors.…”