G-Quadruplex Recognition by Tetraalkylammonium Ions: A New Paradigm for Discrimination between Parallel and Antiparallel G-Quadruplexes

G-quadruplexes are an important class of noncanonical secondary structures of DNA that exist in the cell and are involved in the regulation of principal genomic events. Any regulatory role of a G-quadruplex in the genome is coupled with the attendant interconversions between the G-quadruplex and duplex states. Much effort has been invested in the quest for agents that can recognize individual G-quadruplexes and shift the associated duplex-G-quadruplex equilibria toward the G-quadruplex state. In this communication, we demonstrate that, notwithstanding their simplicity, tetraalkylammonium ions, [H(CH₂)_n]₄N⁺, recognize and strongly stabilize the parallel c-MYC G-quadruplex, while not binding to the antiparallel human telomeric G-quadruplex or duplex DNA. The affinity of TAA⁺ ions for the c-MYC G-quadruplex correlates with the length of the aliphatic side chains. Our CD spectral data suggest that the binding of tetraalkylammonium ions is external, not resulting in structural changes in the host G-quadruplex. The observed discriminatory power identifies tetraalkylammonium salts as a starting point for developing topology-selective G-quadruplex-binding agents.