Macromolecular Crowding as an Intracellular Stimulus for Responsive Nanomaterials
Research output: Contribution to journal › Research article › Contributed › peer-review
Contributors
Abstract
Stimuli-responsive materials are exploited in biological, materials, and sensing applications. We introduce a new endogenous stimulus, biomacromolecule crowding, which we achieve by leveraging changes in thermoresponsive properties of polymers upon high concentrations of crowding agents. We prepare poly(2-oxazoline) amphiphiles that exhibit lower critical solution temperatures (LCST) in serum above physiological temperature. These amphiphiles stabilize oil-in-water nanoemulsions at temperatures below the LCST but are ineffective surfactants above the LCST, resulting in emulsion fusion. We find that the transformations observed upon heating nanoemulsions above their surfactant's LCST can instead be induced at physiological temperatures through the addition of polymers and protein, rendering thermoresponsive materials "crowding responsive."We demonstrate that the cytosol is a stimulus for nanoemulsions, with droplet fusion occurring upon injection into cells of living zebrafish embryos. This report sets the stage for classes of thermoresponsive materials to respond to macromolecule concentration rather than temperature changes.
Details
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 16792-16798 |
Number of pages | 7 |
Journal | Journal of the American Chemical Society |
Volume | 144 |
Issue number | 37 |
Publication status | Published - 21 Sept 2022 |
Peer-reviewed | Yes |
External IDs
PubMed | 36084194 |
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