Functionalized Vesicles Based on Amphiphilic Boronic Acids: A

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Functionalized vesicles based on amphiphilic boronic acids: a system for recognizing biologically important polyols Oleksandr Savsunenko, Hubert Matondo, Sophie Franceschi-Messant, Emile Perez, Anatoly F. Popov, Isabelle Rico-Lattes, Armand Lattes, and Yevgen Karpichev Langmuir, Just Accepted Manuscript • DOI: 10.1021/la304751p • Publication Date (Web): 18 Feb 2013 Downloaded from http://pubs.acs.org on February 19, 2013

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Functionalized vesicles based on amphiphilic boronic acids: a system for recognizing biologically important polyols Oleksandr Savsunenko1,2, Hubert Matondo2, Sophie Franceschi-Messant2, Emile Perez2, Anatoly F. Popov1, Isabelle Rico-Lattes2, Armand Lattes2, Yevgen Karpichev*1

1

L.M.Litvinenko Institute of Physical Organic Chemistry & Coal Chemistry, 70 R. Luxemburg 83114 Donetsk, Ukraine

2

Laboratoire des IMRCP UMR 5623 CNRS - Université Paul Sabatier, 118 route de Narbonne Toulouse 31062, France

RECEIVED DATE CORRESPONDING_AUTHOR_FOOTNOTE : Yevgen Karpichev, [email protected]

ABSTRACT (Word Style “BD_Abstract”). We report on a new approach for creating watersoluble functionalized vesicles employing N-alkyl-3-boronopyridinium triflates (alkyl = Me, C12H25, C16H33) as sensors for monosaccharides. The nanoaggregate properties were studied by means of DLS, TEM, high resolution 1H NMR, and the solvatochromic dyes Reichardt betaine

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and Methyl Orange. The vesicles were shown to have 30-200 nm diameters depending on the amphiphile chain length. Diol binding to the vesicles was studied by steady-state fluorescence and UV-Vis using Alizarin Red S as a probe in the solution at pH 7.4 in the presence and in the absence of D-glucose and D-fructose. Strong sensing ability of boronic acid functional moieties in the order D-fructose > D-glucose was demonstrated, apparent binding constants were estimated.

KEYWORDS. Functionalized surfactants, Vesicles, Boronic acids, Fluorescence, Saccharide recognition. Introduction The search and design of synthetic chemosensors for biologically important molecules have been seriously developing over recent decades

1, 2

. Recognition of different small biologically

important molecules is an integral part of supramolecular chemistry

3, 4

. The saccharides

chemistry plays a significant role in the metabolic pathways of living organisms. Detecting the presence and concentration of biologically important sugars (glucose, fructose, galactose, etc.) in aqueous solution is necessary in a variety of medicinal and industrial contexts. For instance, the quantitation of glucose plays a pivotal role in diabetes control 5. Different approaches for sensing of glucose and other monosaccharides have been reported such as enzymatic 6, fluorescence 7-10, optical 11, 12, and electrochemical 13, 14 methods. The most promising way to construct saccharidesensitive molecular receptors is to use the ability of boronic acid to form covalent bonds with 1,2- and 1,3-diols 15, 16. Boronic acids and their esters are highly valuable compounds which have found extensive applications in organic and medicinal chemistry. The utility of organoboronic acids in organic synthesis has flourished in recent years, particularly through developments in Suzuki-Miyaura coupling

17

. These compounds are known as an attractive class of synthetic

intermediates and structures for self-assembly and functional materials 4. Because of the

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relatively low toxicity of boronic acids and their degradation into the environmentally benign boric acid they can be considered as “green” compounds. Recently, a number of boronic acid based sensing systems have been reported

18

, some of them based on the boron-containing

cavitands derived from calyx-4-resorcines in Langmuir films sensing selectivity

20

boronate hydrogels

22

19

, monolayer films with catechol

, sensitive thin-layer chromatography detectors

21

, dye displacement with

, color chemosensors based on boronate-containing azo dye

molecular systems have also been proposed, namely micelles

24

or vesicles

23

25

. Organized of cationic

surfactants solubilizing non-micellar aryl boronic acids in the presence of fluorescence dye, or oriented molecular aggregates of porphyrin-based amphiphiles

26

. Vesicles functionalized with

both boronic groups and fluorescence probes have been reported to study in the THF/water or methanol/water mixture

27, 28

. To the best of our knowledge, no water-soluble, solvent solvent-

free vesicular system has been previously proposed. The ability to monitor the presence of analytes within physiological and environmental systems is of crucial importance. However, due to the scale at which recognition events occur on the molecular level, gathering this information and providing cheap and simple methods of monitoring poses a non-trivial challenge. Surfactants bearing specifically modified moieties, or functionalized surfactants

29

, open opportunities to use the advantages of non-functionalized

organized molecular systems (bringing together analyte and a sensing molecule in water/micelle or water/vesicle interface) with the high “local” concentration of specific moieties responsible for sensitivity. Recently, we reported a simple and efficient methods of synthesis of N-alkyl-3boronopyridinium triflates

30

and iodides

31

(compounds 2 and 3 on the Scheme 1). These

surfactants are the derivatives of pyridine-3-boronic acid which is known as one of the least basic among aryl boronic acids, its pKa (constant of indirect proton transfer that characterizes the

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acidity of most boronic acids in water followed by trigonal-tetragonal boron transformation 4) is as low as ca. 4.3, and its alkylation does not change the pKa significantly 32. At the same time, Nalkyl derivatives of 3-pyridine boronic acid are well soluble in water at concentrations providing micelle or vesicle formation whereas pyridine-4-boronic acid derivatives are sparingly soluble in water. And finally, 2 and 3 have abnormally low critical aggregate concentrations of 0.158 and 0.016 mM 30 respectively. In the present study, we i) characterize the formation of vesicles of surfactants 2 and 3 and ii) analyse their ability to selectively bind the monosaccharides, D-fructose and D-glucose. We will discuss that the structure of functionalized boronopyridinium surfactants causes changes in vesicle size and play an important role in the binding of biologically important polyols. OH B OH N

CF3SO3-

CnH2n+1

HO B

+OH-OH

-

OH OH

N

CF3SO3-

CnH2n+1

n=1 (1), 12(2), 16(3) Scheme 1 : N-Alkyl-3-boronopyridinium surfactants in the trigonal (left) and tetragonal (right) form of boron Experimental Section All chemicals were purchased from commercial suppliers and used as received. Solvents were purified and dried by standard methods prior to use, when needed. Boronic acids 1-3 were synthesized according to the previously reported method 30, 31. All solutions were prepared using water from a Millipore UltraPure system (18.2 MΩ·cm). Solutions of compounds 2 and 3 were

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sonicated for 20 minutes until they had completely dissolved, and then equilibrated at the 25oC in the thermal control unit before running an experiment. Dynamic light scattering (DLS) studies. The size of the aggregates was determined from DLS measurement by using a Zetasizer Nano S (ZEN3600) light scattering apparatus (Malvern Instruments, Westborough, MA) with a He-Ne laser (632.8 nm, 4 mW). The solution was filtered directly into the scattering cell through a Millipore Millex syringe filter (Triton free, 0.2µm). Before measurements, the scattering cell was rinsed with the filtered solution and the sample solution was equilibrated for 5 – 10 min in the DLS optical system. The scattering intensity was measured normally at θ = 173°. Data acquisition was carried out for 10 min. Transmission Electron Microscopy Studies. Transmission electron microscopic measurements were performed with a high resolution transmission electron microscope (TEM HT 7700 Hitachi, Japan) operating at 100 keV. The transmission electron microscopic measurements were performed using aqueous solutions of the amphiphile after equilibration for 4 h. A drop of surfactant solution was put on a copper grid coated with carbon and allowed to soak for 2 min, the surface solvent on the grid was removed by trapping in a filter paper followed by staining with 1% aqueous uranyl acetate solution. The specimens were then dried in desiccators prior to the measurements. NMR studies. High resolution 1H NMR spectroscopy was performed for 2 at the concentrations 0.2 – 1 mM using Bruker NMR 500 MHz instrument equipped with CryoProbe with water suppression. Solutions prepared in phosphate buffer (pH= 7.4) containing 10% of D2O.

11

B

spectra recorded in quartz tubes using Bruker AVANCE 400 MHz and Bruker 300 MHz instrument.

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UV-Vis spectroscopy and Spectrofluorometry. Absorption UV-Vis spectra were recorded in 10mm quartz cells using a HP 8452A and an Analytik Jena Specord 600, both diode array spectrophotometers equipped with a thermostated single cell holder (HP 8452A) or 8-cell changer (AJ Specord 600), and Genesys 10S UV-Vis (Thermo Electron) spectrophotometer equipped with a thermostated cell unit. Steady-state fluorescence measurements were performed in aqueous solutions using PTI (Photon Technology International) Quantamaster 1 equipment. The four-side transparent quartz cells (10 mm path length) used for the measurements were equilibrated at 25 °C. The fluorescence spectra obtained by excitation at 495 nm (high-pressure Xe lamp, 419 W) were recorded between 450 and 650 nm, and total fluorescence intensities (IF) were calculated by integration of the fluorescence band centred at ca. 565 nm. Solvatochromic dyes Reichardt betaine (RB) and Methyl Orange (MO) were prepared as 1-10 mM stock solutions, added by microsyringe, and used at the concentrations 0.05 mM and 0.01 mM, respectively. Binding constants ARS/monosaccharides - boronic acid. A typical solution for the study of binding fluorescence dye Alizarin Red S (ARS) and boronic acids 1 - 3 consisted of phosphate buffer at pH=7.4, ARS (0.01 mM) and boronic acid ranging in concentrations from 0.01 to 1 mM. For determination of binding constants with monosaccharides, the same pH and ARS concentrations were used, the concentration of boronic acid corresponding to [D]t/CAC ca. 5 was fixed, and concentrations of fructose or glucose were varied. Calculations were done using the Beneshi-Hildebrand equation following previously published recommendations33-35.

Results and Discussion Vesicle formation

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Boronopyridinium surfactants 2 and 3 in water at physiological pH should be considered as zwitterionic surfactants. Indeed, the pKa values of 2 (3.8±0.1) and 3 (3.9±0.1) determined from by UV-Vis titration and

11

B NMR spectra are slightly lower than the pKa of 3-pyridine boronic

acid reported in the literature

32

. Hence, at pH>6.0 the boronopyridinium salts completely

transformed into the tetragonal from (Scheme 1, structure on the right), zwitterionic nanoaggregates are expected to appear in the water solution. This may partly explain the unexpectedly low critical aggregation concentration (CAC) (0.158 mM and 0.016 mM for 2 and 3, respectively) values we reported earlier

30

, compared to the critical micellar concentrations

(CMCs) of cationic surfactants having the same chain length. Thus, compound 2 forms aggregates at concentrations much smaller in comparison to dodecyl pyridinium halides (CMC 11.5 mM) and N-dodecylnicotinamide (CMC 11.0 mM) 36. The critical aggregate concentrations of 2 and 3 are quite similar to those of zwitterionic micelles formed by N-alkylbetaines of comparable chain length 37. The DLS study of the solutions of 2 and 3 in the concentration range 1 < [D]t/CAC < 5 shows that there are no aggregates were found below 10 nm (e.g. micelles). At the same time, aggregates with an apparent diameter of 30-50nm in the solution of 3 and 100-200 nm in the case of 2 were found, see Figure 1. The aggregate sizes obtained from the DLS data are considerably higher than those for spherical micelles which suggests the existence of nanoaggregates of higher hierarchy, namely spontaneous forming vesicles. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) provides an additional support to this suggestion. In Fig. 2, TEM photographs with the negative staining agent, uranyl acetate, taken at the same concentration of 2 and 3 as in the DLS study, demonstrate very similar size distributions. The nanoaggregates are sphere-like in their shape and have “halos” of the staining dye as often observed for vesicles.

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a

b

Figure 1: DLS data for solution of surfactants 2 (a) and 3 (b); concentrations of both surfactants correspond to [D]t/CAC ca. 5 ([2]0=0.8 mM; [3]0=0.08 mM). TEM pictures revealed the existence of closed bilayer vesicles in aqueous solution. Therefore, for the first time, it was observed that a single-chain boronic-acid based amphiphile spontaneously assemblies to vesicles in aqueous solution. There are numerous reports on vesicle formation from natural amphiphiles (mainly phospholipids) and synthetic surfactants have been reported

38, 39

. The organization of various bilayers of single-tail surfactants is well-known

The phenomenon of vesicle formation by single-tailed surfactants unilamellar and multilamellar surfactant vesicles

45

41-44

40

.

and the stability of

have been extensively investigated. In most

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cases, catanionic single-tailed surfactants or mixed surfactants are used to form vesicles. At the same time, limited evidence on zwitterionic surfactants, namely betaines based amphiphiles investigation

47

47

46

and nicotinic acid

indicates the formation of small vesicles in water. In contrast to the latter

, we did not observe the existence of the second break in the surface tension vs

concentration plot which may be explained in terms of the very narrow concentration range of the micellar solution followed by spontaneous vesicle formation. The dodecyl derivative 2 forms considerably larger vesicles than its cetyl chain length analogue 3, at the same normalized concentration (i.e. [D]t/CAC). According to the literature data48, 49, the longer chain length monocationic and Gemini surfactants form the larger aggregates. This surprising sensitivity of vesicle formation to chain length may be evidence of strong headgroup repulsion compared to hydrophobic forces between the tails which favours “tighter” (i.e. water deficient) bilayers in the case of shorter chain derivatives giving significantly larger aggregates.

Figure 2: TEM pictures for surfactants 3 (a) and 2 (b) ; surfactant concentrations correspond to [D]t/CAC ca. 5 ([2]t 0.8 mM; [3]t 0.08 mM), uranyl acetate as staining agent. Insets are the magnifications of the image

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Note that a slight increase of the aggregate size of 3 occurred with an increase of its concentration up to [3]t/CAC ca. 10 (0.16 mM), a concentration close to the CAC of 2. We can assume that in the equal total concentration of surfactant [3]t ≥0.8 mM (equal to [2]t/CAC ca.5) the difference in their size is not that great. Revisiting our recent data 30 it is worth noting that we cannot reach the CAC of the N-octyl-3-boronopyridinium salt within the concentration range of its solubility at 25oC. Considering the above mentioned, it may not be observed due to the tendency of this derivative to form a water-deficient bilayer which does not pack into vesicles within the concentration range studied. In contrast to the catanionic surfactants or Gemini surfactants, aggregates of boronopyridinium amphiphiles form when only zwitterionic (tetrahedral boron) single-chain surfactant is present. Considering relatively high Amin values reported for 2 and 3 earlier

30

, the driving forces of spontaneous vesicle formation should be

analysed. A remarkable property of boronic acid is the ability to form boroxines, which may also contain oligomeric acyclic analogues 2. The thermodynamic parameters of boroxine formation in water were examined by Tokunaga et al. 50 using 1H NMR spectroscopy. The reaction was found to be reversible at room temperature with a small equilibrium constant. In water, the equilibrium is predominantly shifted towards free boronic acid whereas in the hydrophobic premicellar aggregates in the presence of high “local” concentration of head groups we could expect equilibrium formation of a condensation product. Such equilibrium formation of the boroxines or their acyclic analogues could change crucially the packing parameter and therefore favour vesicle formation. The balance of forces controlling the dispersion interactions of hydrophobic tails and Coloumbic forces controlling charged head groups attraction/repulsion directs self-organization towards a certain type of the nanoaggregates, namely towards vesicles.

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High resolution 1H NMR spectroscopy provided information about the microenvironment of the nanoaggregates

51

. The changes in the chemical shifts of pyridinium protons in the

concentration range of surfactants 1 < [2]t/CAC < 5 are shown in Figure 3.

Figure 3: 1H NMR spectra of 2 at different normalized concentrations ([D]t/CAC); phosphate buffer (pH 7.4), 10%D2O. 500 MHz (CryoProbe). Interestingly, the chemical shifts change little around the CAC whereas at [2]t/CAC ≥ 3 the divergence rises and remains similar when 3 < [2]t/CAC< 5. Broadening of the signals corresponds to water-deficient packing, either micellar or bilayer organization, whereas the low field shift of pyridinium protons (in particular, ca. 0.2 ppm for Pyr-H2 singlet signal, see Fig. 3) can be considered as an evidence of in situ boroxine formation. At the same time, the chemical shift of cetyl derivative 3 at [3]t/CAC ca. 5 was found to be smaller than 0.1 ppm (Figure S3). The phenomenon of solvatochromism has been widely employed as a useful tool for the characterization of the microenvironment of the solvent systems or self-assemblies, both in the premicellar area52 and over the corresponding critical concentration53. We analyzed the UV-Vis spectra of the solvatochromic dyes Methyl orange (MO) and Reichardt betaine (RB) at the normalized concentration of surfactants 2 and 3 equal to [D]t/CAC = 5. MO is an anionic dye

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establishing positive solvatochromism, and RB is a probe with the negative solvatochromism. The maximum absorbance peaks for MO and RB and ET30 values for RB are collected in Table 1.

Table 1: Absorbance characteristics of solvatochromic dyes RB and MO RB/nm (ET30/kcal/mol)

Surfactant

MO/nm

2

406

515 (55.52)

3

420

540 (52.95)

CTABr

432

538 (53.14)

DTABr

425

532 (53.74)

water

462

452 (63.25)

As seen in Table 1, MO undergoes a larger shift in the presence of 2 whereas its maximum in the presence of 3 is generally similar to the wavelength corresponding to conventional cationic surfactants. The larger shift corresponds to a more hydrophobic localisation site of the dye 54. It can therefore be concluded that the microenvironment of the vesicle bilayer of 2 is more hydrophobic, enhancing its ability to form larger vesicles. This observation supports the above discussed 1H NMR spectroscopy data suggesting that the higher hydrophobicity of 2 can lead to a higher equilibrium concentration of boronic acid condensation products which, in its turn, favours a larger size of vesicle. Changes in the spectra of RB are less obvious. Being a negative solvatochromic probe, it usually undergoes a bathochromic shift if solvent polarity is lower. Surfactant 3 presents a shift similar to that of cationic micelles, as was the case of MO whereas the peak of RB for solutions of 2 is

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shifted towards more polar regions. One of the reasons for this observation could be a repulsion of the dye from the interface as has been reported for elongated micelles 55, 56. Thus, surfactants 2 and 3 can form vesicles of different sizes and interface micropolarities. At the same normalized concentration ([D]t/CAC), the shorter the chain length, the more waterdeficient the interface, and therefore the larger the vesicle size.

Diol binding To investigate monosaccharide binding, we used a method involving the competitive binding of the fluorescent probe ARS

57

by means of spectrofluorometry and UV-Vis spectrophotometry.

The principal mechanism of diol binding and sensing by the boronic acid moiety of functionalized vesicles of 2 and 3 is shown in Scheme 2.

Scheme 2: A scheme representing a mechanism of diol sensing by functionalized vesicles of 2 and 3 with D-fructofuranose as an example.

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Interaction of the boronic acids with ARS has been the subject of numerous studies. It is generally considered that binding of biologically important polyols is more favourable if boron is tetracoordinated 33. However, as shown by Benkovic in his recent detailed study 58, both trigonal and tetragonal forms of the boronic acid can interact with ARS acting as fluorescent responsive species. a 0.10 1.0x10

7

0.09 8.0x10

6

IF

A

0.08

6.0x10 0.07

4.0x10

0.06

2.0x10

0.05

6

6

6

0.0 1E- 5

1E- 4

1E-3 [2]/M

b 6

0. 04

1.2x10 6

0. 03

8.0x10 5

0. 02

IF

1.6x10

A

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60

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0. 01

4.0x10 5

0. 00 1E-5

1E-4 [3]/ M

1E-3

Figure 4: Fluorescence intensity () and absorbance () for interaction of ARS with 2 (a) and 3 (b); [ARS] = 0.05 mM.

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We studied the binding capacity of the functionalized vesicles at physiological pH (7.4) where all N-alkyl-3-boronopyridinium salts are entirely present in the tetragonal form and no complex interaction occurs, according to the recent time-resolved study

59

. Spectrofluorometric and

spectrophotometric titration of ARS are shown in Figure 4, the determination of binding constants proceeded according to the algorithm recommended in the paper of Hargrove et al 35. Binding constants for ARS by different techniques are collected in the Table 2. Table 2: Apparent binding constants Kb,app/M-1 of ARS with functionalized vesicles 2 and 3 Method

1

2

3

UV-Vis

850 ± 30

810 ± 30

10100 ± 400

Fluorescence

770 ± 20

625 ± 20

11000 ± 500

Fluorescence intensity of ARS increases about one order of magnitude in the present of vesicles 2 and 3 comparing to 1 taken at the same concentration which is in agreement with data reported for non-functionalized micelles24 and vesicles25. Interestingly, surfactants 2 and 3 demonstrated different binding abilities. The data are consistent by two different methods, and values for 1 and 2 are similar. Nevertheless, surfactant 3 demonstrated much stronger affinity toward ARS in terms of Kb,app. This could be caused by the differences in packing of the bilayers in small and large vesicles. A vesicle of 3, due to its higher curvature, has to be less hydrophobic than a vesicle of 2 so it is seemingly able to increase its affinity to ARS by both boronic ester formation and solubilization mechanisms. Another factor influencing the affinity of the vesicles formed by 2 and 3 could be the “local” concentration of boronic hydroxyl groups affected by the

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concentration of boronic acid condensation products in the nanoaggregate. As it was higher with 2, less free boronic acid was available on surface. Hence, its affinity for ARS might be lower in comparison with 3. The binding of monosaccharides was monitored by two methods. The apparent binding constants calculated from UV-Vis data are presented in Table 3. Table 3: Apparent binding constants Kb,app/M-1 of D-glucose and D-fructose with functionalized vesicles of 2. ([2]t/CAC

D-fructose

D-glucose

1

40 ± 5

5±1

2

35 ± 5

5±1

3

29± 4

5±1

4

20 ± 3

6±1

5

10± 3

6±1

The apparent binding constant of fructose was low even at the CAC, and gradually decreased as the surfactant concentration was increased. The Kb obtained for glucose was comparable to data from the literature for water solutions and did not change within the concentration range studied. This suggests that the equilibrium in larger vesicles between ARS, polyol, and boronic moieties can be more complicated than shown in Scheme 2. The binding constant for fructose by vesicles of 3 was constant at 25±10 M-1 within the normalized concentration range 2