A phosphatase-responsive supramolecular amphiphilic assembly was fabricated as an operationally targeted drug delivery carrier based on the host–guest complexation of amphiphilic calixarene with adenosine triphosphate (ATP). Remarkably, the complexation of calixarene with ATP lowers its critical aggregation concentration pronouncedly to form hollow spherical nanoparticles, which are identified by the combination of atomic force microscopy, high-resolution transmission electron microscopy and scanning electron microscopy. Moreover, the spherical assembly is efficiently responsive to phosphatase that is overexpressed in many tumor cells, and therefore the present system may have potential application in drug delivery systems.
A Stimulus-Responsive Shape-Persistent Micelle Bearing a Calix[4]arene Building Block: Reversible pH-Dependent Transition between Spherical and Cylindrical Forms
A series of cationic calix[4]arene-based lipids with alkyl chains of varying length were newly synthesized, and the ones with propyl and hexyl tails, denoted by CaL[4]C3 and C6, respectively, were found to form spherical micelles at low pH (protonated state of the amine headgroup). Upon deprotonation with increasing pH, CaL[4]C3 showed a sphere-to-cylinder transition, while CaL[4]C6 changed from sphere, to cylinder, to monolayer vesicle. Synchrotron small-angle X-ray scattering (SAXS) patterns from both spherical and cylindrical CaL[4]C3 micelles exhibited a sharp intensity minimum, indicating shape monodispersity. The monodispersity of the CaL[4]C3 spherical micelles was further confirmed by analytical ultracentrifugation (AUC). SAXS, AUC, and static light scattering agreeingly indicated an aggregation number of 6. In contrast, CaL[4]C6 exhibited polydispersity with an average aggregation number of 12. When the number of carbons of the alkyl chain was increased to 9 (CaL[4]C9), cylinder formed at low pH, while at high pH, no clear morphology could be observed. The present results indicate that a very precise combination of tail length, head volume, and rigidity of the building block is required to produce shape-persistent micelles and that the shape-persistence can be maintained upon a structural transition. An attempt to reconstruct a molecular model for the spherical CaL[4]C3 micelle was made With an ab initio shape determining program.