1 Laboratoire de Synthèse et Physico-Chimie de Molécules d'Intérêt Biologique, UMR 5068 CNRS, Université Paul Sabatier, 118 Route de Narbonne, 31062 Toulouse Cedex 9, France.
DNA hairpin structures can be stabilized by introduction of constraint on the sugar phosphate backbone within the unpaired loop moiety by means of dinucleotides locked with an alpha torsion angle in gauche(+) configuration.