The quest for a G-quadruplex specific fluorescent sensor among other DNA forms under physiological salt conditions has been addressed in this article. We demonstrate for the first time the application of a water-soluble fluorogenic dye, Thioflavin T (ThT), in a dual role of exclusively inducing quadruplex folding in the 22AG human telomeric DNA, both in the presence and absence of Tris buffer/salt, and sensing the same through its fluorescence light-up having emission enhancement of the order of 2100-fold in the visible region. Appropriate conditions allow an apparent switch over of the parallel quadruplex structure in 22AG-ThT (50 mM Tris, pH 7.2) solution to the antiparallel form just by the addition of K(+) ions in the range 10-50 mM. Moreover, addition of ThT cooperatively stabilizes the K(+) induced antiparallel quadruplexes by a ΔT(m) ∼11 °C. The distinction of ThT as a quadruplex inducer has been contrasted with the erstwhile used structurally related dye, Thiazole Orange (TO), which did not induce any quadruplex folding in the 22AG strand in the absence of salt. The striking fluorescence light-up in ThT on binding to the human telomeric G-quadruplex is shown to be highly specific compared to the less than 250-fold enhancement observed with other single/double strand DNA forms. This work has implication in designing new generation dyes based on the ThT scaffold, which are highly selective for telomeric DNA, for potential diagnostic, therapeutic, and ion-sensing applications.

This article reports an efficient host-assisted guest protonation mechanism in coumarin 6 (C6) dye, upon its interaction with cucurbit[7]uril (CB7) macrocycle. C6 uptakes the CB7 macrocycle both in 1:1 and 2:1 (CB7/C6) stoichiometries, which brings out a large upward pK(a) shift (from ~0.8 to 6), and facilitates the protonation of C6 at normal pH conditions, having significant photochemical implications. Controlled dissociation of the assemblies has been achieved through their response to stimuli like temperature change or metal ions. By this approach, a specific form of the guest can be activated and could provide a simple stimulus for the controlled drug/dye delivery. Furthermore, the host-assisted guest protonation improves the stability and aqueous solubility of C6 and is a promising candidate for aqueous-based supramolecular dye laser system. Such simple protocol leading to photoswitchable systems having aqueous solubility and biocompatibility can in principle be evolved into a general strategy to deliver and operate potential functional molecular components under various trigger control.

This article presents the process and mechanism of supramolecular pKa shift in two bichromophoric coumarin laser dyes, namely, coumarin 7 (C7), (ΔpK(a) = 4.6) and coumarin 30 (C30), (ΔpK(a) = 3.0), achieved by introducing a synthetic macrocyclic receptor, cucurbit[7]uril (CB7), in aqueous media. The intramolecular charge transfer, from the diethylamino coumarin moiety toward the benzimidazolyl moiety and its protonation, even at pH ∼8, is facilitated by the interaction of the cucurbituril host in a 2:1 (CB7/dye) stoichiometric ratio. The CB7 macrocycle interacts with C7/C30 dyes in a stepwise manner with binding constants of the order of K(1) ≅10(5) M(-1), K2 ≅10(4) M(-1) for both C7 and C30 dyes. This study underlines a structure-property relationship to explain the host induced changes in the stereoelectronic distributions in the guest dyes supporting the supramolecular pK(a) shifts and is appropriately established by both experimental and theoretical considerations. On the other hand, the increased solubility (>250 times) and enhancement in fluorescence intensity (>13-fold) of the coumarin dyes in the presence of CB7 also find applications for developing aqueous dye laser systems where this supramolecular strategy will largely suppress the disadvantages of low solubility, aggregation, lower emission, or low stability of the dye in aqueous medium.

We reveal the ability of p-sulfonatocalix[4/6]arene to effectively inhibit the fibril formation in human insulin and demonstrate its potential to disintegrate the mature fibrils, a promising supramolecular strategy to combat amyloidosis.

Cucurbit[8]uril (as low as 10 mol%) acts as a supramolecular catalytic nanoreaction vessel and facilitates the photodimerization of coumarins in water leading to syn dimers. Saturation kinetics shows a sigmoidal dependence with a turnover number of 3.4 min(-1) and a Hill constant of 1.8 indicating a co-operative mechanism in the catalytic process.