Abstract
Liposomes are artificial vesicles, in which an aqueous inner compartment is separated from its environment by a phospholipid membrane. They have been extensively studied as cell membrane models and offer the possibility to confine molecules and chemical reactions to a small sub-micrometer-sized volume. This short review provides an overview of liposome-encapsulated, dynamically self-assembled, supramolecular structures, in which the assembly and disassembly of the supramolecular structures can be followed by optical spectroscopic methods. This includes self-quenched fluorescent dyes and dye/quencher pairs, helical stacks of guanosine nucleotides, dynamic covalent boronate esters, and supramolecular host–guest complexes. The resulting liposomes are typically used to study membrane transport processes, but the results summarized herein also serve as a potential blueprint for studying dynamic self-assembly in confined spaces by optical spectroscopic methods.
Table of content:
1 Introduction
2 Probes Based on Fluorescence Quenching
3 Chirogenic G-Quartet Probes
4 Chromogenic Probes Using Dynamic Covalent Bonds
5 Self-Assembled Host–Dye Reporter Pairs
6 Conclusions and Outlook
Key words self-assembly - host–guest chemistry - liposomes - fluorescence - circular dichroism
