From Peptide Nucleic Acids to Supramolecular Structures of Nucleic Acid Derivatives

Nucleic acids play a pivotal role in life processes. The endeavours to shed light on the essential properties of these intriguing building blocks led us to the synthesis of different analogues and the investigation of their properties. First various peptide nucleic acid monomers and oligomers have been synthesized, using an Fmoc/acyl protecting group strategy, and their properties studied. The serendipitous discovery of a side reaction of coupling agents led us to the elaboration of a peptide sequencing method. The capricious behaviour of guanine derivatives spurred the determination of their substitution pattern using ¹³C, ¹⁵N NMR, and mass spectrometric methods. The properties of guanines initiated the logical transition to the study of supramolecular systems composed of purine analogues. Thus, xanthine and uracil derivatives have been obtained and their supramolecular self-assembly properties scrutinized in gas, solid, and liquid states and at solid-liquid interfaces.     

The Unexpected Base-Pairing Behavior of Cyanuric Acid in RNA and Ribose versus Cyanuric Acid Induced Helicene Assembly of Nucleic Acids: Implications for the Pre-RNA Paradigm

The cyanuric acid (CA) heterocycle forms supramolecular structures with adenine nucleobases/nucleosides and oligonucleotides, leading to speculation that they can act as forerunners to RNA. Herein, the assembly behavior of RNA containing CA and CA–ribose nucleoside was studied. Contrary to previous reports, CA in RNA and the CA-ribonucleoside resulted in destabilization of supramolecular assemblies, which led to a reevaluation of the CA–adenine hexameric rosette structure. An unprecedented noncovalent supramolecular helicene structure is proposed to account for the striking difference in behavior, which has implications for novel paradigms for reorganizing the structures of nucleic acids, the synthesis of long helicenes, and pre-RNA world paradigms. The results caution against extrapolating the self-assembly behavior of individual heterocycles from the level of monomers to oligomers because the base-paring properties of (non-)canonical nucleobases are impacted by the type of oligomeric backbone to which they are attached.     

稀土氨基酸配合物与核酸的相互作用*

很多抗癌金属药物是以核酸为靶标。阐明小分子与核酸之间的相互作用对筛选具有高效选择性和低毒副作用的抗癌药物有重要意义。近年来,开发新型的具有对核酸序列特异性识别能力的抗癌药物己成为本领域的研究热点。稀土离子具有良好的磁学、光学、电学特性和配位能力,使稀土配合物成为新型药物试剂。然而,稀土离子在中性条件下易水解的特性极大地阻碍了稀土配合物对核酸分子识别的研究。近年来在近生理条件下合成的一系列镧系氨基酸配合物具有结构稳定、溶解性好等优点,解决了镧系离子易水解的问题。本文总结了目前关于镧系氨基酸配合物与核酸的相互作用及其序列选择性等方面的研究进展。     

Chiroptical Helices of N-Terminal Aryl Amino Acids through Orthogonal Noncovalent Interactions

In the solid state, amino acids (alanine and phenylglycine) with appended pyrene segments self-assembled into α-helix-like structures by asymmetrical H-bonds between carboxylic acid and amide segments, further inducing supramolecular tilted chirality of the achiral pyrenes. These structures bind melamine and electron-deficient units through H-bond and charge-transfer interactions, respectively. Charge-transfer interactions enhance the dissymmetry g-factor of absorption (g_abs; up to 1.4×10⁻²) with an extended Cotton effect active region (from 250 to 600 nm). Incorporating melamine inverts the handedness of circularly polarized luminescence and boosts the dissymmetry g-factor (g_lum). Melamine also induces macroscopic chirality at the nanoscale, whereby the 2D lamellar structures are transformed into 1D helices at the nanoscale, leading to giant tubular structures at the microscale.     

Simulation of Electronic Circular Dichroism of Nucleic Acids: From the Structure to the Spectrum

We present a quantum mechanical (QM) simulation of the electronic circular dichroism (ECD) of nucleic acids (NAs). The simulation combines classical molecular dynamics, to obtain the structure and its temperature‐dependent fluctuations, with a QM excitonic model to determine the ECD. The excitonic model takes into account environmental effects through a polarizable embedding and uses a refined approach to calculate the electronic couplings in terms of full transition densities. Three NAs with either similar conformations but different base sequences or similar base sequences but different conformations have been investigated and the results were compared with experimental observations; a good agreement was seen in all cases. A detailed analysis of the nature of the ECD bands in terms of their excitonic composition was also carried out. Finally, a comparison between the QM and the DeVoe models clearly revealed the importance of including fluctuations of the excitonic parameters and of accurately determining the electronic couplings. This study demonstrates the feasibility of the ab initio simulation of the ECD spectra of NAs, that is, without the need of experimental structural or electronic data.     

卟啉化合物与核酸的相互作用研究

本文综述了卟啉化合物与核酸相互作用时的结合模式、光谱方法和重要的应用研究, 并对该领域的研究前景作了展望。     

Chiroptical Helices of N‐Terminal Aryl Amino Acids through Orthogonal Noncovalent Interactions

In the solid state, amino acids (alanine and phenylglycine) with appended pyrene segments self‐assembled into α‐helix‐like structures by asymmetrical H‐bonds between carboxylic acid and amide segments, further inducing supramolecular tilted chirality of the achiral pyrenes. These structures bind melamine and electron‐deficient units through H‐bond and charge‐transfer interactions, respectively. Charge‐transfer interactions enhance the dissymmetry g‐factor of absorption (g_abs; up to 1.4×10^?2) with an extended Cotton effect active region (from 250 to 600 nm). Incorporating melamine inverts the handedness of circularly polarized luminescence and boosts the dissymmetry g‐factor (g_lum). Melamine also induces macroscopic chirality at the nanoscale, whereby the 2D lamellar structures are transformed into 1D helices at the nanoscale, leading to giant tubular structures at the microscale.     

基于核酸分子识别的电化学分析方法与应用

核酸作为生物体遗传信息的载体以及分子生物学和生物分析化学中重要的功能分子,近年来在电化学分析中受到了越来越多的重视。本文以作者所在研究组的工作为实例,对核酸分子识别的电化学分析方法作出简要的评述,内容涉及核酸序列和基因变异的电化学分析以及核酸作为功能分子进行识别检测的电化学分析等等。     

锁核酸分子信标在分子识别与生物分析中的应用

分子信标是一种荧光探针,闭合时呈发夹结构。其5'末端修饰荧光基团,3'末端修饰猝灭基团。当目标存在时,环部与目标结合,发夹打开,发出荧光。锁核酸是一类双环状寡核苷酸衍生物,能够遵循碱基互补配对原则与核酸结合。锁核酸分子信标技术,结合了分子信标无需分离未结合探针而直接检测的优势和锁核酸亲合力强、热稳定性好、抗酶切以及体内无毒等特点,在核酸检测方面具有灵敏度高、特异性好的独特优势,近年来得到广泛关注。本文介绍了锁核酸修饰分子信标的结构、功能、设计要点,及其研究现状和一些重要进展,并讨论了目前锁核酸分子信标在分子识别及生物分析中的应用及存在的问题和发展前景。     

Highly Stable Duplex Formation by Artificial Nucleic Acids Acyclic Threoninol Nucleic Acid (aTNA) and Serinol Nucleic Acid (SNA) with Acyclic Scaffolds

The stabilities of duplexes formed by strands of novel artificial nucleic acids composed of acyclic threoninol nucleic acid (aTNA) and serinol nucleic acid (SNA) building blocks were compared with duplexes formed by the acyclic glycol nucleic acid (GNA), peptide nucleic acid (PNA), and native DNA and RNA. All acyclic nucleic acid homoduplexes examined in this study had significantly higher thermal stability than DNA and RNA duplexes. Melting temperatures of homoduplexes were in the order of aTNA>PNA≈GNA≥SNA?RNA>DNA. Thermodynamic analyses revealed that high stabilities of duplexes formed by aTNA and SNA were due to large enthalpy changes upon formation of duplexes compared with DNA and RNA duplexes. The higher stability of the aTNA homoduplex than the SNA duplex was attributed to the less flexible backbone due to the methyl group of D ‐threoninol on aTNA, which induced clockwise winding. Unlike aTNA, the more flexible SNA was able to cross‐hybridize with RNA and DNA. Similarly, the SNA/PNA heteroduplex was more stable than the aTNA/PNA duplex. A 15‐mer SNA/RNA was more stable than an RNA/DNA duplex of the same sequence.     

Interactions of Night Blue with Nucleic Acids and Determination of Nucleic Acids Using Resonance Light Scattering Technique

The noncovalent interactions of night blue (NB) with several nucleic acids in buffer medium of Britton‐Robinson at pH 4.1 have been studied by spectroscopic methods. It is shown that the binding of NB with nucleic acids involves the J‐aggregation of NB molecules on the surface of nucleic acids. The aggregation was encouraged by polyanions nucleic acids, in which nucleic acids served for acting templates. In this connection, a new method of nucleic acids with sensitivity at nanogram level is proposed based on the measurement of enhanced resonance light scattering (RLS). The linear range of ctDNA, fsDNA and yRNA is 0.01—2.5, 0.03—2.5 and 0.04—1.0 μg/mL, respectively, and the corresponding detection limits (3s?) are 9.4, 7.3 and 5.7 ng/mL at 2.5 × 10–⁵mol/L of NB. Synthetic and real samples were analyzed with satisfactory results.     

Tellurium-Modified Nucleosides,Nucleotides, and Nucleic Acids with Potential Applications

Tellurium was successfully incorporated into proteins and applied to protein structure determination through X-ray crystallography. However, studies on tellurium modification of DNA and RNA are limited. This review highlights the recent development of Te-modified nucleosides, nucleotides, and nucleic acids, and summarizes the main synthetic approaches for the preparation of 5-PhTe, 2′-MeTe, and 2′-PhTe modifications. Those modifications are compatible with solid-phase synthesis and stable during Te-oligonucleotide purification. Moreover, the ideal electronic and atomic properties of tellurium for generating clear isomorphous signals give Te-modified DNA and RNA great potential applications in 3D crystal structure determination through X-ray diffraction. STM study also shows that Te-modified DNA has strong topographic and current peaks, which immediately suggests potential applications in nucleic acid direct imaging, nanomaterials, molecular electronics, and diagnostics. Theoretical studies indicate the potential application of Te-modified nucleosides in cancer therapy.     

Spectroscopic Study of the Interaction between New Fluorescent Dyes with Nucleic Acids

Considerableefforthasbeencofltinuingtofocusonthedevelopmentofnewfluorescentdyestorecognizenucleicacids'-'.Althoughdansylisawell-knownsensitivehydrophobicprobewhichhasbeenwidelyutilizedasafluorescentprobeforthestudyofproteins,yetlittleefforthasbeenfocusedontheexploringdansylamidederivativeswhichmayhavespecificeffectsonnucleicacids.Sincethebindingaffinityofsuchfluorophorestopolynucleotideswasgreatlyaffectedbytheirsidechainsubstitutions,inthisworkseveralnewdansylderivativeswithspecificbindingtonu…     

Interactions of Safranin T with Nucleic Acids

The interactions of Safranin T (ST) with several nucleic acids have been investigated by electrochemical, UV‐visible and CD spectroscopic techniques. The form of the nucleic acid‐ST complexes is sensitive to the ratio of the two species. Two electrochemically inactive complexes such as, nucleic acid‐ST and nucleic acid‐2ST, were formed while ST interacts with nucleic acids. Two processes were obtained from spectral experiments: (1) at the high value of R (R is defined as the ratio of the total concentration of ST to that of nucleic acid), ST is groove‐binding with stacking, (2) at the low value of R, ST is groove‐binding without stacking. Intrinsic binding constants were obtained by spectral methods. The experiments also show that electrostatic binding plays an important role in the interaction of ST with nucleic acids.