Negrón Luis M, Díaz Tanya L, Ortiz-Quiles Edwin O, Dieppa-Matos Diómedes, Madera-Soto Bismark, Rivera José M
Department of Chemistry and the Molecular Sciences Research Center, University of Puerto Rico at Río Piedras , San Juan, 00926, Puerto Rico.
Langmuir. 2016 Mar 15;32(10):2283-90. doi: 10.1021/acs.langmuir.5b03946. Epub 2016 Mar 1.
Nanoflowers (NFs) are flowered-shaped particles with overall sizes or features in the nanoscale. Beyond their pleasing aesthetics, NFs have found a number of applications ranging from catalysis, to sensing, to drug delivery. Compared to inorganic based NFs, their organic and hybrid counterparts are relatively underdeveloped mostly because of the lack of a reliable and versatile method for their construction. We report here a method for constructing NFs from a wide variety of biologically relevant molecules (guests), ranging from small molecules, like doxorubicin, to biomacromolecules, like various proteins and plasmid DNA. The method relies on the encapsulation of the guests within a hierarchically structured particle made from supramolecular G-quadruplexes. The size and overall flexibility of the guests dictate the broad morphological features of the resulting NFs, specifically, small and rigid guests favor the formation of NFs with spiky petals, while large and/or flexible guests promote NFs with wide petals. The results from experiments using confocal fluorescence microscopy, and scanning electron microscopy provides the basis for the proposed mechanism for the NF formation.
纳米花（NFs）是整体尺寸或特征处于纳米级别的花状颗粒。除了具有令人愉悦的美学外观外，纳米花还在从催化到传感再到药物递送等诸多领域得到了应用。与无机基纳米花相比，它们的有机和杂化对应物相对不够发达，主要是因为缺乏一种可靠且通用的构建方法。我们在此报告一种从多种生物相关分子（客体）构建纳米花的方法，这些客体分子从小分子如阿霉素到生物大分子如各种蛋白质和质粒DNA不等。该方法依赖于将客体分子封装在由超分子G-四链体构成的分层结构颗粒中。客体分子的大小和整体柔韧性决定了所得纳米花的广泛形态特征，具体而言，小而刚性的客体有利于形成具有尖刺花瓣的纳米花，而大的和/或柔性的客体则促进形成具有宽花瓣的纳米花。使用共聚焦荧光显微镜和扫描电子显微镜进行的实验结果为所提出的纳米花形成机制提供了依据。
