Recognizing and stabilizing miR-21 by chiral ruthenium(II) complexes

Yin Feng; Jing Shu; Liangzhong Yao; Yutao Lan; Lianbao Ye; Wenjie Mei; Ying Ding

doi:10.1186/s13065-020-00672-8

Recognizing and stabilizing miR-21 by chiral ruthenium(II) complexes

BMC Chem. 2020 Apr 3;14(1):26. doi: 10.1186/s13065-020-00672-8. eCollection 2020 Dec.

Authors

Yin Feng^#¹, Jing Shu^#^{2

3}, Liangzhong Yao¹, Yutao Lan^{3

4}, Lianbao Ye^{2

3

5}, Wenjie Mei^{2

3

5}, Ying Ding^{1

3}

Affiliations

¹ 1The First Affiliated Hospital of Guangdong Pharmaceutical University, Guangzhou, 510062 China.
² 2School of Pharmacy, Guangdong Pharmaceutical University, Guangzhou, 510006 China.
³ Guangdong Province Engineering Center for Molecular Probe & Biomedical Imaging, Guangzhou, 510006 China.
⁴ 4School of Nursing, Guangdong Pharmaceutical University, Guangzhou, Guangdong 510006 China.
⁵ 5Guangzhou Key Laboratory of Construction and Application of New Drug Screening Model System, Guangdong Pharmaceutical University, Guangzhou, 510006 China.

^# Contributed equally.

Abstract

MiR-21, a non-coding miRNA with 22 nucleotides, plays an important part in the proliferation, invasion, and metastasis of tumor cells. The present study demonstrates that isomers of chiral ruthenium(II) complexes with alkynes (Λ-1 and Δ-1) were synthesized by Songogashira coupling reaction by using microwave-assisted synthetic technology. The isomers can recognize and stabilize miR-21, with the Λ-isomer showing a stronger binding capacity than the Δ-isomer. Further studies showed that both isomers can be uptaken by MDA-MB-231 cells and enriched in the nucleus. Treatment with the Λ-/Δ-isomer downregulated the expression of miR-21. In a word, the development of chiral ruthenium(II) complexes act as potential inhibitors against tumor cells by recognizing, stabilizing, and regulating the expression of miR-21.

Keywords: Chiral ruthenium(II) complexes; FRET; MiR-21; RNA binding property.