Toward Pathogenic Biofilm Suppressors: Synthesis of Amino Derivatives of Pillar[5]arene and Supramolecular Assembly with DNA

New amino derivatives of pillar[5]arene were obtained in three stages with good yields. It was shown that pillar[5]arene containing thiaether and tertiary amino groups formed supramolecular complexes with low molecular weight model DNA. Pillar[5]arene formed complexes with a DNA nucleotide pair at a ratio of 1:2 (macrocycle/DNA base pairs), as demonstrated by UV-visible and fluorescence spectroscopy. The association constants of pillar[5]arene with DNA were lgKass1:1 = 2.38 and lgKass1:2 = 5.07, accordingly. By using dynamic light scattering and transmission electron microscopy, it was established that the interaction of pillar[5]arene containing thiaether and tertiary amino groups (concentration of 10−5 M) with a model nucleic acid led to the formation of stable nanosized macrocycle/DNA associates with an average particle size of 220 nm. It was shown that the obtained compounds did not exhibit a pronounced toxicity toward human adenocarcinoma cells (A549) and bovine lung epithelial cells (LECs). The hypothesis about a possible usage of the synthesized macrocycle for the aggregation of extracellular bacterial DNA in a biofilm matrix was confirmed by the example of St. Aureus. It was found that pillar[5]arene at a concentration of 10(−5) M was able to reduce the thickness of the St. Aureus biofilm by 15%.