The interaction of polyamine conjugates with DNA double helix has been studied. Binding properties were examined by ethidium bromide (EtBr) displacement and DNA unwinding/topoisomerase I/II (Topo I/II) activity assays, as well as dsDNA thermal stability studies and circular dichroism spectroscopy. Genotoxicity of the compounds was estimated by a comet assay. It has been shown that only compound 2a can interact with dsDNA via an intercalative binding mode as it displaced EtBr from the dsDNA-dye complex, with Kapp = 4.26 × 10⁶ M-1; caused an increase in melting temperature; changed the circular dichroism spectrum of dsDNA; converted relaxed plasmid DNA into a supercoiled molecule in the presence of Topo I and reduced the amount of short oligonucleotide fragments in the comet tail. Furthermore, preliminary theoretical study has shown that interaction of the discussed compounds with dsDNA depends on molecule linker length and charge distribution over terminal aromatic chromophores.
Keywords: chromone; intercalation; polyamine conjugates; quinoline.