Lipid bilayer membranes separate living cells from their environment. Membrane proteins are responsible for the processing of ion and molecular inputs and exports, sensing stimuli and signals across the bilayers, which may operate in a channel or carrier mechanism. Inspired by these wide-ranging functions of membrane proteins, chemists have made great efforts in constructing synthetic mimics in order to understand the transport mechanisms, create materials for separation, and develop therapeutic agents. Since the report of an alkylated cyclodextrin for transporting Cu(2+) and Co(2+) by Tabushi and co-workers in 1982, chemists have constructed a variety of artificial transmembrane channels by making use of either the multimolecular self-assembly or unimolecular strategy. In the context of the design of unimolecular channels, important advances have been made, including, among others, the tethering of natural gramicidin A or alamethicin and the modification of various macrocycles such as crown ethers, cyclodextrins, calixarenes, and cucurbiturils. Many of these unimolecular channels exhibit high transport ability for metal ions, particularly K(+) and Na(+). Concerning the development of artificial channels based on macrocyclic frameworks, one straightforward and efficient approach is to introduce discrete chains to reinforce their capability to insert into bilayers. Currently, this approach has found the widest applications in the systems of crown ethers and calixarenes. We envisioned that for macrocycle-based unimolecular channels, control of the arrangement of the appended chains in the upward and/or downward direction would favor the insertion of the molecular systems into bilayers, while the introduction of additional interactions among the chains would further stabilize a tubular conformation. Both factors should be helpful for the formation of new efficient channels. In this Account, we discuss our efforts in designing new unimolecular artificial channels from tubular pillar[n]arenes by extending their lengths with various ester, hydrazide, and short peptide chains. We have utilized well-defined pillar[5]arene and pillar[6]arene as rigid frameworks that allow the appended chains to afford extended tubular structures. We demonstrate that the hydrazide and peptide chains form intramolecular N-H···O═C hydrogen bonds that enhance the tubular conformation of the whole molecule. The new pillar[n]arene derivatives have been successfully applied as unimolecular channels for the selective transport of protons, water, and amino acids and the voltage-gated transport of K(+). We also show that aromatic hydrazide helices and macrocycles appended with peptide chains are able to mediate the selective transport of NH4(+).

A new series of hydrogen-bonded helical aromatic hydrazide oligomers and polymer that bear phenylalanine tripeptide chains have been designed and synthesized. It was revealed that the helical structures could insert into lipid bilayers to form unimolecular channels. The longest oligomeric and polymeric helical channels exhibited an NH4(+)/K(+) selectivity that was higher than that of natural gramicidin A, whereas the transport of a short helical channel for Tl(+) could achieve an efficiency as high as that of gramicidin A.

A series of tubular molecules with different lengths have been synthesized by attaching Trp-incorporated peptides to the pillar[5]arene backbone. The tubular molecules are able to insert into the lipid bilayer to form unimolecular transmembrane channels. One of the channels has been revealed to specifically insert into the bilayer of the Gram-positive bacteria. In contrast, this channel cannot insert into the membranes of the mammalian rat erythrocytes even at the high concentration of 100 μm. It was further demonstrated that, as a result of this high membrane selectivity, the channel exhibits efficient antimicrobial activity for the Gram-positive bacteria and very low hemolytic toxicity for mammalian erythrocytes.

Ac lass of artificial K + channels formed by pillararene-cyclodextrin hybrid molecules have been designed and synthesized.T hese channels efficiently inserted into lipid bilayers and displayed high selectivity for K + over Na + in fluorescence and electrophysiological experiments.The cation transport selectivity of the artificial channels is tunable by varying the length of the linkers between pillararene and cyclodexrin. The shortest channel showed specific transmembrane transport preference for K + over all alkali metal ions (selective sequence:K + > Cs + > Rb + > Na + > Li + ), and is rarely observed for artificial K + channels.T he high selectivity of this artificial channel for K + over Na + ensures specific transmembrane translocation of K + ,a nd generated stable membrane potential across lipid bilayers.

A novel protocol for nickel-catalyzed direct sp(2) C-H bond alkylation of N-aromatic heterocycles has been developed. This new reaction proceeded efficiently at room temperature using a Grignard reagent as the coupling partner. This approach provides new access to a variety of alkylated N-aromatic heterocycles which are potentially of great importance in medicinal chemistry.