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AUTHOR

Aurélien Laguerre

Drug Screening Boosted by Hyperpolarized Long-Lived States in NMR

International audience; : Transverse and longitudinal relaxation times (T1ρ and T1 ) have been widely exploited in NMR to probe the binding of ligands and putative drugs to target proteins. We have shown recently that long-lived states (LLS) can be more sensitive to ligand binding. LLS can be excited if the ligand comprises at least two coupled spins. Herein we broaden the scope of ligand screening by LLS to arbitrary ligands by covalent attachment of a functional group, which comprises a pair of coupled protons that are isolated from neighboring magnetic nuclei. The resulting functionalized ligands have longitudinal relaxation times T1 ((1) H) that are sufficiently long to allow the powerf…

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Prefolded Synthetic G-Quartets Display Enhanced Bioinspired Properties

International audience; A water-soluble template-assembled synthetic G-quartet (TASQ) based on the use of a macrocyclodecapeptide scaffold was designed to display stable intramolecular folds alone in solution. The preformation of the guanine quartet, demonstrated by NMR and CD investigations, results in enhanced peroxidase-type biocatalytic activities and improved quadruplex-interacting properties. Comparison of its DNAzyme-boosting properties with the ones of previously published TASQ revealed that, nowadays, it is the best DNAzyme-boosting agent.

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Visualization of RNA-Quadruplexes in Live Cells

Visualization of DNA and RNA quadruplex formation in human cells was demonstrated recently with different quadruplex-specific antibodies. Despite the significant interest in these immunodetection approaches, dynamic detection of quadruplex in live cells remains elusive. Here, we report on NaphthoTASQ (N-TASQ), a next-generation quadruplex ligand that acts as a multiphoton turn-on fluorescent probe. Single-step incubation of human and mouse cells with N-TASQ enables the direct detection of RNA-quadruplexes in untreated cells (no fixation, permeabilization or mounting steps), thus offering a unique, unbiased visualization of quadruplexes in live cells.

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DNA structure-specific sensitization of a metalloporphyrin leads to an efficient in vitro quadruplex detection molecular tool

International audience; The search for convenient molecular probes for detecting DNA and RNA quadruplexes in vitro is marked by a rapid pace of progress, spurred on by the multiple roles these higher-order nucleic acid structures play in many genetic dysregulations. Here, we contribute to this search, reporting on a palladated porphyrin named Pd.TEGPy: its efficiency as quadruplex-selective fluorescent dye relies on a structural design that endows it with attractive supramolecular and electronic properties and makes it an efficient turn-on, quadruplex-selective fluorescent stain thanks to a DNA-mediated sensitization mechanism that ensures a high level of specificity.

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Porphyrin-Based Design of Bioinspired Multitarget Quadruplex Ligands

Secondary nucleic acid structures, such as DNA and RNA quadruplexes, are potential targets for cancer therapies. Ligands that interact with these targets could thus find application as anticancer agents. Synthetic G-quartets have recently found numerous applications, including use as bioinspired G-quadruplex ligands. Herein, the design, synthesis and preliminary biophysical evaluation of a new prototype multitarget G-quadruplex ligand, (PNA)PorphySQ, are reported, where peptidic nucleic acid guanine ((PNA)G) was incorporated in the porphyrin-templated synthetic G-quartet (PorphySQ). Using fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET)-melting experiments, PorphySQ was shown to possess enhanc…

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CCDC 977462: Experimental Crystal Structure Determination

Related Article: Aurélien Laguerre, Nicolas Desbois, Loic Stefan, Philippe Richard, Claude P. Gros and David Monchaud|2014|ChemMedChem|9|2035|doi:10.1002/cmdc.201300526

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CCDC 977461: Experimental Crystal Structure Determination

Related Article: Aurélien Laguerre, Nicolas Desbois, Loic Stefan, Philippe Richard, Claude P. Gros and David Monchaud|2014|ChemMedChem|9|2035|doi:10.1002/cmdc.201300526

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