Artificial DNA: PNA & XNA最新文献

Fluorescent probes for the detection of a double-stranded DNA were prepared by labeling a triplex-forming DNA oligonucleotide with a thiazole orange (TO) dimer unit. They belong to ECHO (exciton-controlled hybridization-sensitive fluorescent oligonucleotide) probes which we have previously reported. The excitonic interaction between the two TO molecules was expected to effectively suppress the background fluorescence of the probes. The applicability of the ECHO probes for the detection of double-stranded DNA was confirmed by examining the thermal stability and photophysical and kinetic properties of the DNA triplexes formed by the ECHO probes.

As a proof-of-principle, two hetero-bimetallic PNA oligomers containing a ruthenium(II) polypyridyl and a cyclopentadienyl manganese tricarbonyl complex have been prepared by serial combination of solid-phase peptide coupling and in-solution thiol chemistry. Solid-phase N-terminus attachment of Ru(II)-polypyridyl carboxylic acid derivative, C1, onto the thiol-functionalized PNA backbone (H-a-a-g-t-c-t-g-c-linker-cys-NH 2) has been performed by standard peptide coupling method. As two parallel approaches, the strong affinity of thiols for maleimide and haloacetyl group has been exploited for subsequent post-SPPS addition of cymantrene-based organometallic cores, C2 and C3. Michael-like addition and thioether ligation of thiol functionalized PNA1 (H-gly-a-a-g-t-c-t-g-c-linker-cys-NH 2) and PNA2 (C1-a-a-g-t-c-t-g-c-linker-cys-NH 2) to cymantrene maleimide and chloroacetyl derivatives, C2 and C3, respectively, has been performed. The synthesized ruthenium(II)-cymantrenyl PNA oligomers have been characterized by mass spectrometry (ESI-MS) and IR spectroscopy. The distinct Mn-CO vibrational IR stretches, between 1,924-2,074 cm (-1) , have been used as markers to confirm the presence of cymantrenyl units in the PNA sequences and the purity of the HPLC-purified PNA thioethers assessed using LC-MS.

We have developed an assay for single strand DNA or RNA detection which is based on the homo-DNA templated Staudinger reduction of the profluorophore rhodamine-azide. The assay is based on a three component system, consisting of a homo-DNA/DNA hybrid probe, a set of homo-DNA reporter strands and the target DNA or RNA. We present two different formats of the assay (Omega probe and linear probe) in which the linear probe was found to perform best with catalytic turnover of the reporter strands (TON: 8) and a match/mismatch discrimination of up to 19. The advantage of this system is that the reporting (homo-DNA) and sensing (DNA) domain are decoupled from each other since the two pairing systems are bioorthogonal. This allows independent optimization of either domain which may lead to higher selectivity in in vivo imaging.

Over the past decade, several technologies have emerged to access nucleic acid-tagged libraries and select the fittest compound within such libraries. This perspective focuses on recent development with PNA-tagged small molecules displayed on DNA templates for screening purposes and to probe the optimal geometry in multivalent interactions.

Information storage capabilities are key in most aspects of society and the requirement for storage capacity is rapidly expanding. In principle, DNA could be a high-density medium for information storage. Church and coworkers recently demonstrated how binary data can be encoded, stored in, and retrieved from a library of oligonucleotides, increasing by several orders of magnitude the amount and density of manmade information stored in DNA to date. The technology remains in its infancy and important hurdles have yet to be overcome in order to realize its potential. However, DNA may be particularly useful as a storage-medium over long time-scales (centuries), because data-access is compatible with any large-scale DNA-sequencing and -synthesis technology.

Here we describe the first example of selective reductive amination in biological fluids using split aptamer proximity ligation (StAPL). Utilizing the cocaine split aptamer, we demonstrate small-molecule-dependent ligation that is dose-dependent over a wide range of target concentrations in buffer, human blood serum and artificial urine medium. We explore the substrate binding preferences of the split aptamer and find that the cinchona alkaloids quinine and quinidine bind to the aptamer with higher affinity than cocaine. This increased affinity leads to improved detection limits for these small-molecule targets. We also demonstrate that linker length and hydrophobicity impact the efficiency of split aptamer ligation. The ability to carry out selective chemical transformations using non-bioorthogonal chemistry in media where competing reactive groups are present highlights the power of the increased effective molarity provided by DNA assembly. Obviating the need for bioorthogonal chemistry would dramatically expand the repertoire of chemical transformations available for use in templated reactions such as proximity ligation assays, in turn enabling the development of novel methods for biomolecule detection.

This review highlights the recent methods to prepare PNA-based materials through a combination of self-assembly and self-organization processes. The use of these methods allows easy and versatile preparation of structured hybrid materials showing specific recognition properties and unique physicochemical properties at the nano- and micro-scale levels displaying potential applications in several directions, ranging from sensors and microarrays to nanostructured devices for biochips.

A homothymine PNA decamer bearing four lysine residues has been synthesized as a probe for the development of amperometric sensors. On one hand, the four amino groups introduced make this derivative nine times more soluble than the corresponding homothymine PNA decamer and, on the other hand, allow the stable anchoring of this molecule on Au nanostructured surface through the terminal -NH 2 moieties. In particular, XPS and electrochemical investigations performed with hexylamine, as a model molecule, indicate that the stable deposition of primary amine derivatives on such a nanostructured surface is possible and involves the free electron doublet on the nitrogen atom. This finding indicates that this PNA derivative is suitable to act as the probe molecule for the development of amperometric sensors. Thanks to the molecular probe chosen and to the use of a nanostructured surface as the substrate for the sensor assembly, the device proposed makes possible the selective recognition of the target oligonucleotide sequence with very high sensitivity.

The helix is a critical conformation exhibited by biological macromolecules and plays a key role in fundamental biological processes. Biological helical polymers exist in a single helical sense arising from the chiral effect of their primary units-for example, DNA and proteins adopt predominantly a right-handed helix conformation in response to the asymmetric conformational propensity of D-sugars and L-amino acids, respectively. In using these homochiral systems, nature blocks our observations of some fascinating aspects of the cooperativity in helical systems, although when useful for a specific purpose, "wrong" enantiomers may be incorporated in specific places. In synthetic helical systems, on the contrary, incorporation of non-racemic chirality is an additional burden, and the findings discussed in this review show that this burden may be considerably alleviated by taking advantage of the amplification of chirality, in which small chiral influences lead to large consequences. Peptide nucleic acid (PNA), which is a non-chiral synthetic DNA mimic, shows a cooperative response to a small chiral effect induced by a chiral amino acid, which is limited, however, due to the highly flexible nature of this oligomeric chimera. The lack of internal stereochemical bias is an important factor which makes PNA an ideal system to understand some cooperative features that are not directly accessible from DNA.