Wang Huaimin, Feng Zhaoqianqi, Xu Bing
Department of Chemistry, Brandeis University, 415 South Street, Waltham, MA 02453, USA.
Chem Soc Rev. 2017 May 9;46(9):2421-2436. doi: 10.1039/c6cs00656f.
Self-assembly, the autonomous organization of components to form patterns or structures, is a prevalent process in nature at all scales. Particularly, biological systems offer remarkable examples of diverse structures (as well as building blocks) and processes resulting from self-assembly. The exploration of bioinspired assemblies not only allows for mimicking the structures of living systems, but it also leads to functions for applications in different fields that benefit humans. In the last several decades, efforts on understanding and controlling self-assembly of small molecules have produced a large library of candidates for developing the biomedical applications of assemblies of small molecules. Moreover, recent findings in biology have provided new insights on the assemblies of small molecules to modulate essential cellular processes (such as apoptosis). These observations indicate that the self-assembly of small molecules, as multifaceted entities and processes to interact with multiple proteins, can have profound biological impacts on cells. In this review, we illustrate that the generation of assemblies of small molecules in cell milieu with their interactions with multiple cellular proteins for regulating cellular processes can result in primary phenotypes, thus providing a fundamentally new molecular approach for controlling cell behavior. By discussing the correlation between molecular assemblies in nature and the assemblies of small molecules in cell milieu, illustrating the functions of the assemblies of small molecules, and summarizing some guiding principles, we hope this review will stimulate more molecular scientists to explore the bioinspired self-assembly of small molecules in cell milieu.
自组装，即组件自主组织形成图案或结构的过程，是自然界中各个尺度上普遍存在的过程。特别是，生物系统提供了由自组装产生的各种结构（以及构建模块）和过程的显著例子。对受生物启发的组装体的探索不仅能够模仿生命系统的结构，还能产生可应用于造福人类的不同领域的功能。在过去几十年中，对小分子自组装的理解和控制方面的努力产生了大量用于开发小分子组装体生物医学应用的候选物。此外，生物学领域的最新发现为小分子组装体调节基本细胞过程（如细胞凋亡）提供了新的见解。这些观察结果表明，小分子作为与多种蛋白质相互作用的多面实体和过程，其自组装可对细胞产生深远的生物学影响。在本综述中，我们阐述了在细胞环境中生成小分子组装体及其与多种细胞蛋白质的相互作用以调节细胞过程可导致主要表型，从而为控制细胞行为提供一种全新的分子方法。通过讨论自然界中的分子组装体与细胞环境中小分子组装体之间的相关性，阐明小分子组装体的功能，并总结一些指导原则，我们希望本综述能激发更多分子科学家探索细胞环境中受生物启发的小分子自组装。
