0000000000164088
AUTHOR
Ivo Piantanida
The size of aryl linker between two polyaza-cyclophane moieties controls the binding selectivity to ds-RNA vs ds-DNA
Aryl-linked (pyridine- vs. phenanthroline-) bis-polyaza pyridinophane scorpiands PYPOD and PHENPOD strongly bind to the double stranded DNA and RNA, whereby very intriguing RNA over DNA selectivity is finely tuned by aryl-linker length and aromatic surface. Moreover, PYPOD and PHENPOD dimer formation at high compound/polynucleotide ratios is highly sensitive to the fine interplay between the steric and binding properties of compound-dimers and the DNA minor groove/RNA major groove. That is demonstrated by significantly different induced CD spectra, which allow spectroscopic differentiation between various DNA/RNA secondary structures. A significantly higher (micromolar) antiproliferative ef…
Polycationic Monomeric and Homodimeric Asymmetric Monomethine Cyanine Dyes with Hydroxypropyl Functionality—Strong Affinity Nucleic Acids Binders
New analogs of the commercial asymmetric monomethine cyanine dyes thiazole orange (TO) and thiazole orange homodimer (TOTO) with hydroxypropyl functionality were synthesized and their properties in the presence of different nucleic acids were studied. The novel compounds showed strong, micromolar and submicromolar affinities to all examined DNA ds-polynucleotides and poly rA–poly rU. The compounds studied showed selectivity towards GC-DNA base pairs over AT-DNA, which included both binding affinity and a strong fluorescence response. CD titrations showed aggregation along the polynucleotide with well-defined supramolecular chirality. The single dipyridinium-bridged dimer showed intercalatio…
Aryl-bis-(scorpiand)-aza receptors differentiate between nucleotide monophosphates by a combination of aromatic, hydrogen bond and electrostatic interactions.
Bis-polyaza pyridinophane scorpiands bind nucleotides in aqueous medium with 10–100 micromolar affinity, predominantly by electrostatic interactions between nucleotide phosphates and protonated aliphatic amines and assisted by aromatic stacking interactions. The pyridine-scorpiand receptor showed rare selectivity toward CMP with respect to other nucleotides, whereby two orders of magnitude affinity difference between CMP and UMP was the most appealing. The phenanthroline-scorpiand receptor revealed at pH 5 strong selectivity toward AMP with respect to other NMPs, based on the protonation of adenine heterocyclic N1. The results stress that the efficient recognition of small biomolecules with…
Acid–base properties of functionalised tripodal polyamines and their interaction with nucleotides and nucleic acids
Novel, highly positively charged tripodal polyamines with appended heterocyclic moieties revealed an intriguing panel of protonation species within the biologically relevant range. Studied compounds bind nucleotide monophosphates by mostly electrostatic interactions but only the imidazole analogue showed selectivity toward UMP in respect to other nucleotides. Strong binding of all the studied compounds to both ds-DNA and ds-RNA is to some extent selective toward the latter, showing rather rare RNA over DNA preference.
Revealing interactions between polyaza pyridinophane compounds and DNA/RNA polynucleotides by SERS spectroscopy
Surface-enhanced Raman scattering spectroscopy (SERS) in the near-infrared region had been applied to study interactions of polyaza pyridinophanes with single stranded RNA and double stranded DNA and RNA polynucleotides. Studied compounds, PYPOD and PHENPOD, differed in the central aromatic moiety, pyridine and phenanthroline, respectively, which linked two cyclic amines. An intense scattering was obtained from molecules adsorbed onto the silver nanoparticles, showing nonlinear concentration dependence in the 6.5 × 10−8−6.5 × 10−5 M range. New bands in spectra of PYPOD/polynucleotide and PHENPOD/polynucleotide mixtures were assigned to vibrational modes of polynucleotide moieties involved i…
Surface-Enhanced Raman Study of the Interactions between Tripodal Cationic Polyamines and Polynucleotides
Raman and surface-enhanced Raman spectra of new DNA/RNA-binding compounds consisting of three imidazole (Im) and three pyridine (Py) rings connected by tripodal polyaminomethylene linkages were obtained by the near-infrared excitation at 1064 nm. Study of interactions of Im and Py polyamines with single-stranded RNA polynucleotides (poly A, poly G, poly C, poly U), double-stranded DNA polynucleotides (poly dAdT-poly dAdT, poly dGdC-poly dGdC) and calf thymus DNA (ct-DNA) by surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) reveals unambiguous enhancement of the Raman scattering from the small molecules as well as appearance of new bands in spectra associated mainly with nucleobases. The SERS exper…
1-ethyl-3-(6-methylphenanthridine-8-il) urea modulates TLR3/9 activation and induces selective pro-inflammatory cytokine expression in vitro.
We have previously demonstrated the nucleic acid binding capacity of phenanthridine derivatives (PHTs). Because nucleic acids are potent inducers of innate immune response through Toll-like receptors (TLRs), and because PTHs bear a structural resemblance to commonly used synthetic ligands for TLR7/8, we hypothesized that PHTs could modulate/activate immune response. We found that compound M199 induces secretion of IL-6, IL-8 and TNFα in human PBMCs and inhibits TLR3/9 activation in different cellular systems (PBMCs, HEK293 and THP-1 cell lines).
Specific and highly efficient condensation of GC and IC DNA by polyaza pyridinophane derivatives
Abstract Two bis-polyaza pyridinophane derivatives and their monomeric reference compounds revealed strong interactions with ds-DNA and RNA. The bis-derivatives show a specific condensation of GC- and IC-DNA, which is almost two orders of magnitude more efficient than the well-known condensation agent spermine. The type of condensed DNA was identified as ψ-DNA, characterized by the exceptionally strong CD signals. At variance to the almost silent AT(U) polynucleotides, these strong CD signals allow the determination of GC-condensates at nanomolar nucleobase concentrations. Detailed thermodynamic characterisation by ITC reveals significant differences between the DNA binding of the bis-deriv…
Synthesis and biological evaluation of 4-nitro-substituted 1, 3-diaryltriazenes as a novel class of potent antitumor agents
Abstract We describe the synthesis and biological activity of a new class of 1,3-diaryltriazenes, namely 4-nitro-substituted 1,3-diaryltriazenes. Structure–activity relationship analysis reveals that 1,3-diaryltriazenes can be modified from inactive to highly cytotoxic compounds by the introduction of two nitro groups at the para positions of benzene rings and two additional electron-withdrawing groups (bromo, chloro, trifluoromethyl or fluoro substituents) at their ortho position. In order to increase the solubility of the modified compounds, we introduced various acyl groups to their triazene nitrogen. The results of LC-MS/MS analysis showed that N -acyltriazenes can be considered as prod…