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Updated: Oct 15, 2025

Directed Assembly of Elastin-like Proteins into defined Supramolecular Structures and Cargo Encapsulation In Vitro
Published on: April 8, 2020
Self-assembly of chiral foldamers with alternating hydrophilic and hydrophobic side chains into acid-sensitive and
Zhiqiang Zhao1,2, Zheng Bian3, Yu Chen1
1State Key Laboratory of Polymer and Chemistry, Changchun Institute of Applied Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 5625 Renmin Street, 130022, Changchun, China. kangcq@ciac.ac.cn.
Abstract:
It is difficult for the same molecule to self-assemble into stable vesicular particles in water and aliphatic hydrocarbon (oil), respectively. Here we demonstrated that chiral oligo(methylene-p-phenyleneethynylene)s with alternating hydrophilic and hydrophobic side chains were able to self-assemble into vesicular particles independent of solvent polarity. These particles were well dispersed in aliphatic hydrocarbon, alcohol or water for at least one month at room temperature, and readily transferred from organic to aqueous phases via dialysis. They displayed a noticeable response to the acidity of the aqueous phase, and could be used as simple cargos for loading hydrophilic or hydrophobic molecules in aqueous cores, which were different from loading in polymersomes. The vesicular particles loaded with hydrophobic paclitaxel exhibited comparable anti-HeLa cell activity to free paclitaxel in vitro.
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