Stabilization of Long-Looped i-Motif DNA by Polypyridyl Ruthenium Complexes

Benjamin J Pages; Sarah P Gurung; Kane McQuaid; James P Hall; Christine J Cardin; John A Brazier

doi:10.3389/fchem.2019.00744

Stabilization of Long-Looped i-Motif DNA by Polypyridyl Ruthenium Complexes

Front Chem. 2019 Nov 5:7:744. doi: 10.3389/fchem.2019.00744. eCollection 2019.

Authors

Benjamin J Pages¹, Sarah P Gurung^{2

3}, Kane McQuaid^{2

3}, James P Hall^{1

3}, Christine J Cardin², John A Brazier¹

Affiliations

¹ School of Pharmacy, University of Reading, Reading, United Kingdom.
² Department of Chemistry, University of Reading, Reading, United Kingdom.
³ Diamond Light Source, Didcot, United Kingdom.

Abstract

A spectroscopic study of the interactions of Λ- and Δ-[Ru(phen)₂(dppz)]²⁺ with i-motif DNA containing thymine loops of various lengths. In the presence of i-motifs, the luminescence of the Λ enantiomer was enhanced much more than the Δ. Despite this, the effect of each enantiomer on i-motif thermal stability was comparable. The sequences most affected by [Ru(phen)₂(dppz)]²⁺ were those with long thymine loops; this suggests that long-looped i-motifs are attractive targets for potential transition metal complex drugs and should be explored further in drug design.

Keywords: DNA; i-motif; luminescence; melting; ruthenium; stabilization.