A double-decker cage for allosteric encapsulation of ATP.

In this work, we describe the preparation of double-decker cage [1-H 6 ] 6+ comprising two binding pockets, each with three ammonium and three amide hydrogen bonding sites. This novel host possesses a high affinity for trapping two molecules of ATP in an allosteric fashion, with both experiments and theory suggesting the synergistic action of charged hydrogen bonds and π-π stacking in the encapsulation.