Self-assembly of artificial architectures in living cells — design and applications

Self-assembly exists widely in natural living system and artificial synthetic material system. Administration of self-assemblies of artificial architectures in living cells can be used to explore the molecular physicochemical fundamentals and operating mechanisms of living system, and consequently promote the development of biomedicine. In order to mimic naturally occurring self-assemblies and realize controllable functions, great efforts have been devoted to constructing dynamic assembly of artificial architectures in living cells by responding to intracellular specific stimuli, which can be used to regulate morphology, behaviors and fate of living cells. This review highlights the recent progress on artificial self-assembly in living cells. The molecular fundamentals and characteristics of intracellular environment that can induce the self-assembly of artificial architectures are introduced, and the representative work on dynamic artificial self-assembly in living cells is sketched chronologically. Moreover, intracellular stimuli-mediated pathways of artificial assembly in living cells are categorized, biological effects caused by intracellular self-assembly are summarized, and biomedical applications focusing on therapy and imaging are described. In the end, the perspective and challenges of artificial self-assembly in living cells are fully discussed. It is believed that the grand advances on artificial self-assembly in living cells will contribute to elaborating the molecular mechanisms in cells, and further promoting the biologically and medically-related applications in the future.