Supramolecular docking structure determination of alkyl-bearing molecules

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Wu, Yitao; Shi, Le; Xu, Lei; Ying, Jiale; Miao, Xiaohe; Hua, Bin; Chen, Zhijie; Sessler, Jonathan L.; Huang, Feihe
• 署名单位: Zhejiang University; Zhejiang University; Zhejiang Normal University; Nanjing University; Westlake University; Westlake University; Zhejiang University; University of Texas System; University of Texas Austin
• 刊物名称: Nature
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0028-1435
• DOI: 10.1038/s41586-025-08833-2
• 发表日期: 2025-04-17
• 关键词: helicoverpa-assulta; moth

摘要

Numerous natural products and drugs contain flexible alkyl chains. The resulting conformational motion can create challenges in obtaining single crystals and thus determining their molecular structures by single-crystal X-ray diffraction (SCXRD)1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10-11. Here we demonstrate that by using pillar[5]arene-incorporated metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) and taking advantage of pillar[5]arene-alkyl chain host-guest recognition12, 13, 14-15, it is possible to reduce this motion and bring order to alkyl-chain-containing molecules as the result of docking within accessible pillar[5]arene units present in an overall MOF. This has allowed the single-crystal structures of 48 alkyl-chain-containing molecules, including 6 natural products, 2 approved drugs and 18 custom-made compounds collected from 16 research groups, to be determined using standard SCXRD instrumentation. The structures of alkyl-chain-containing molecules derived from crude reaction products can also be determined directly by SCXRD analyses without further purification. The simplicity, high efficiency and apparent generality of the present pillar[5]arene-incorporated MOF-based supramolecular docking approach suggest that it could emerge as a new tool for the analyses of natural products and drugs that might not be amenable to traditional SCXRD-based structure determination.