Macrocyclic oligocholates were found in a previous work (Cho, H.; Widanapathirana, L.; Zhao, Y. J. Am. Chem. Soc.2011, 133, 141−147) to stack on top of one another in lipid membranes to form nanopores. Pore formation was driven by a strong tendency of the water molecules in the interior of the amphiphilic macrocycles to aggregate in a nonpolar environment. In this work, cholate oligomers terminated with guanidinium and carboxylate groups were found to cause efflux of hydrophilic molecules such as glucose, maltotriose, and carboxyfluorescein (CF) from POPC/POPG liposomes. The cholate trimer outperformed other oligomers in the transport. Lipid-mixing assays and dynamic light scattering ruled out fusion as the cause of leakage. The strong dependence on chain length argues against random intermolecular aggregates as the active transporters. The efflux of glucose triggered by these compounds increased significantly when the bilayers contained 30 mol % cholesterol. Hill analysis suggested that the active transporter consisted of four molecules. The oligocholates were proposed to fold into "noncovalent macrocycles" by the guanidinium−carboxylate salt bridge and stack on top of one another to form similar transmembrane pores as their covalent counterparts.
Disciplines
Chemistry
CommentsReprinted ( Synthetic transmembrane pores with an inner diameter of 1 nm or larger have attracted a great deal of attention in recent years. 1,2 Part of the motivation comes from the fact that their biological congeners, membrane-associated pore-forming proteins, are involved in critical functions such as signaling, metabolism, and bacterial or viral infection. 3À7 Since it is notoriously difficult to obtain detailed structural information for complex membrane proteins, chemists have sought to construct simpler biomimetic nanopores and study their behavior under more easily controlled conditions. Knowledge generated from such studies not only is useful to the understanding of biological pore formation but also helps create materials with potential applications ranging from single-molecule detection of DNAs and RNAs 8À14 to drug delivery. 15 Crown ethers and open chain compounds, which worked extremely well for ion channels, 16À21 normally are too flexible for nanopore formation. To keep the pore open, the structure must be able to withstand the external membrane pressure when incorporated into a bilayer. 22 Despite the significant efforts devoted to synthetic nanopores, limited designs exist currently. An early example was Ghadiri's cyclic D/L-peptides, which self-assembled into transmembrane pores large enough for glucose and glutamic acid to pass through. 23,24 In recent years, the β-barrel pores constructed from oligo(phenylene) derivatives by Matile and coworkers 25À27 proved particularly versatile and useful in many applications including sensing 26 and catalysis. 27 Other examples include the porphyrin-based nanopores by Satake and Kobuke, 28 Gong's π-stacked aromatic heterocycles, 29 the metal-coordinated nanopores by Fy...