基于天然小分子化合物的超分子自组装

Supramolecular Self-Assembly Based on Natural Small Molecules

天然产物来源广泛、手性结构独特、具有多修饰位点、良好的生物相容性和可控的降解性,与其他非天然产物的自组装体系相比,具有更多的优势.简单修饰的天然产物在溶剂中容易形成氢键、π-π堆积、范德华作用等非共价键作用,促使分子有序排列形成聚集体,成为超分子自组装体系的重要构筑基元.同时,其独特的手性结构在分子有序排列过程中,通常会实现手性由分子层次到超分子层次的传递和放大,因此,可用于构建螺旋带、纳米管等多种手性组装体.天然产物良好的生物相容性和生物活性,也使得基于此类化合物的组装体可应用于组织工程、药物传递、细胞成像等生命科学领域,显示其广阔的应用前景.本文介绍了基于氨基酸、糖、核苷碱基、甾体、三萜等天然产物缀合物在超分子自组装特性方面的研究概况及其发展趋势.

Natural products have been widely used in the construction of supramolecular self-assemblies due to not only their abundant resources, unique chiral structures, and multiple reaction sites, but also the good biocompatibility and the controllable degradability. Through the simple chemical modification natural products-based functional molecules would self-assemble into various supramolecular assemblies primarily promoted by non-covalent interactions, such as hydrogen bonding, π-π stacking, van der Waals forces, electrostatic interactions, and charge-transfer interactions. During the assembly process, their unique molecular chirality would be transferred and magnified into supramolecular assemblies, thus providing a facile method to fabricate helical ribbons, nanotubes, and other chiral nanostructures. Furthermore, their good biocompatibility and biological activity endow the assemblies with the ability to be widely applied in tissue engineering, drug delivery, cell imaging, and so on. In this review, recent developments of supramolecular self-assemblies based on amino acids, sugars, nucleosides, steroids, triterpenoids and other natural products were summarized.