Issue 9, 2017

Mechanical measurement of hydrogen bonded host–guest systems under non-equilibrium, near-physiological conditions

Abstract

Decades after the birth of supramolecular chemistry, there are many techniques to measure noncovalent interactions, such as hydrogen bonding, under equilibrium conditions. As ensembles of molecules rapidly lose coherence, we cannot extrapolate bulk data to single-molecule events under non-equilibrium conditions, more relevant to the dynamics of biological systems. We present a new method that exploits the high force resolution of optical tweezers to measure at the single molecule level the mechanical strength of a hydrogen bonded host–guest pair out of equilibrium and under near-physiological conditions. We utilize a DNA reporter to unambiguously isolate single binding events. The Hamilton receptor–cyanuric acid host–guest system is used as a test bed. The force required to dissociate the host–guest system is ∼17 pN and increases with the pulling rate as expected for a system under non-equilibrium conditions. Blocking one of the hydrogen bonding sites results in a significant decrease of the force-to-break by 1–2 pN, pointing out the ability of the method to resolve subtle changes in the mechanical strength of the binding due to the individual H-bonding components. We believe the method will prove to be a versatile tool to address important questions in supramolecular chemistry.

Graphical abstract: Mechanical measurement of hydrogen bonded host–guest systems under non-equilibrium, near-physiological conditions

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Edge Article
Submitted
11 Jul 2017
Accepted
29 Jul 2017
First published
31 Jul 2017
This article is Open Access

All publication charges for this article have been paid for by the Royal Society of Chemistry
Creative Commons BY license

Chem. Sci., 2017,8, 6037-6041

Mechanical measurement of hydrogen bonded host–guest systems under non-equilibrium, near-physiological conditions

T. Naranjo, F. Cerrón, B. Nieto-Ortega, A. Latorre, Á. Somoza, B. Ibarra and E. M. Pérez, Chem. Sci., 2017, 8, 6037 DOI: 10.1039/C7SC03044D

This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported Licence. You can use material from this article in other publications without requesting further permissions from the RSC, provided that the correct acknowledgement is given.

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