Transient control of lytic activity via a non-equilibrium chemical reaction system

Abstract

The development of artificial non-equilibrium chemical reaction systems has recently attracted considerable attention as a new type of biomimetic. However, due to the lack of bioorthogonality, such reaction systems could not be linked to the regulation of any biological phenomena. Here, we have newly designed a non-equilibrium reaction system based on olefin metathesis to produce the Triton X-mimetic non-ionic amphiphile as a kinetic product. Using phospholipid vesicles encapsulating fluorescent dyes and red blood cells as cell models, we demonstrate that the developed chemical reaction system is applicable for transient control of the resulting lytic activity.