Reduction‐Responsive Supramolecular Sheets for Selective Regulation of Facultative Anaerobe Agglutination

Abstract

Stimuli-responsive supramolecular materials have promising biological applications because of their ability to rapidly undergo significant structural changes in response to diverse stimuli. Herein, supramolecular sheets assembled via charge-transfer interactions between the pyrene moiety of a d-mannose-containing amphiphile and 7,7,8,8-tetracyanoquinodimethane (TCNQ) are reported. The supramolecular sheets show reduction-responsive behavior, in which their disassembly is triggered by the reduction of TCNQ by sodium sulfide. In an anaerobic environment, the sheet structure remains intact and the exposed d-mannose moieties induce the agglutination of facultative anaerobes, thereby inhibiting bacterial growth. In contrast, in an aerobic environment, the reduction of TCNQ by the hydrogen sulfide generated by facultative anaerobes causes sheet disassembly. This enables continuous bacterial growth, because the collapsed sheets cannot induce agglutination. Thus, this study presents a novel supramolecular material for the selective regulation of facultative anaerobe growth according to the external environment.

Self-assembly of cyclic peptide monolayers by hydrophobic supramolecular hinges

“…For example, monomers are required to elongate in two directions, which often leads to competing assembly pathways that may result in polydisperse and heterogenous samples. 8 Yet, the high surface area of 2D assemblies is highly coveted by material scientists and supramolecular chemists alike, finding applications in catalysis, 9,10 molecular sieving, 11 responsive surfaces 12,13 and biosensing, 14,15 amongst others. 16,17…”