A guided experimental approach to practical molecular pharmacology teaching: demonstration of sequence selectivity of DNA-binding drugs by arrested polymerase chain reaction.

Abstract

Here, we report a simple experimental approach for demonstrating sequence-selectivity of DNA-binding drugs by using the polymerase-chain reaction (PCR). The experiments described could be easily and reproducibly performed by medical and science students and biochemistry teachers, do not require complex or expensive instruments and 32P labelled probes or primers. The procedure described could represent a novel approach to practical biochemistry teaching in the field of biochemical pharma-cology.