(Invited, Digital Presentation) Polyaromatic Micelles: Discrete Nanoparticles with Versatile Host Functions in Water

Polyaromatic micelles, assembled from bent anthracene dimers with hydrophilic units, have been established by our group as versatile host structures in water at the nanoscale (Fig. 1a; M. Yoshizawa et al., Acc. Chem. Res. 2019, 52, 2392). We here report recent efforts into the direction of bioapplications of these micelles via deliberate modifications of the amphiphile design. Utilization of an ortho-dianthrylbenzene core is shown to allow construction of photoresponsive micelles capable of quantitative guest release via light irradiation, which is potentially useful for drug delivery (Fig. 1b). In addition, attachment of hydrophilic mannose units to the anthracene dimer framework is demonstrated to yield highly fluorescent saccharide clusters capable of selective interactions with proteins (Fig. 1c). Figure 1