Analysis of G‐quadruplex conformations using Raman and polarized Raman spectroscopy

G‐quadruplexes (G4s) are four‐stranded DNA structures formed within nucleic acid sequences that are rich in guanines. G4 formation within DNA strands is believed to have significant biological relevance for the control of cell replication and gene expression. Therefore, the development and validation of experimental techniques that can easily and reliably characterize G4 structures under biologically relevant measurement conditions, like Raman spectroscopy, are desirable for G4‐targeted structure based drug design. Here we report Raman and polarized Raman studies of solutions of three oligonucleotides, thrombin binding aptamer (TBA) 5′‐GGTTGGTGTGGTTGG‐3′, human telomeric (HT) 5′‐(TTAGGG)₄‐3′, and a modified c‐Myc NHE‐III₁ sequence (MycL1) 5′‐TGAGGGTGGGTAGGGTGGGTAA‐3′, which were previously reported to form four distinct intramolecular G4 structures in the presence of Na⁺ or K⁺, as determined by NMR. Our results support the previously proposed antiparallel (TBA), antiparallel and hybrid (HT), and parallel with double‐chain reversal (DCR) loop (MycL1) structures. Large sample‐dependent variations in the intensity of bands associated with deoxyribose backbone modes in the 840–930 cm⁻¹ and 1420–1460 cm⁻¹ spectral regions were observed. Most notably, a highly polarized deoxyribose ring symmetric stretch (~930 cm⁻¹) appeared strongly in the solution spectra for HT and TBA, but was very weak or absent in the solution spectrum for MycL1 and the drop deposition (dried sample) spectra for all three oligonucleotides. It is hypothesized that the intensity of this band is likely controlled by furanose ring structure uniformity and/or solvent accessibility to certain nucleotide binding sites. Raman depolarization ratios measured for the G4s in solution were generally very similar to those previously reported for canonical B DNA, with the possible exception of base ring modes that consistently yielded slightly lower depolarization ratios for G4s compared to B DNA. The results further underscore the utility of Raman and polarized Raman spectroscopy for G4 structure elucidation under biologically relevant solution conditions. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.