Interaction and morphology of polyethylenimine/DNA complexes as studied by solid-state NMR spectroscopy

Proposed model for in vitro interaction between fenitrothion and DNA, by using competitive fluorescence, (31)P NMR, (1)H NMR, FT-IR, CD and molecular modeling

In this work we proposed a model for in vitro interaction of fenitrothion (FEN) with calf thymus-DNA by combination of multispectroscopic and two dimensional molecular modeling (ONIOM) methods. The circular dichroism results showed that FEN changes the conformation of B-DNA and caused some changes to C-DNA form. The FT-IR results confirmed a partial intercalation between FEN and edges of all base pairs. The competitive fluorescence, using methylene blue as fluorescence probe, in the presence of increasing amounts of FEN, revealed that FEN is able to release the non-intercalated methylene blue from the DNA. The weak chemical shift and peak broadening of (1)H NMR spectrum of FEN in the presence of DNA confirmed a non-intercalation mode. The (31)P NMR showed that FEN interacts more with DNA via its -NO2 moiety. The ONIOM, based on the hybridization of QM/MM (DFT, 6.31++G (d,p)/UFF) methodology, was also performed by Gaussian 2003 package. The results revealed that the interaction is base sequence dependent, and FEN interacts more with AT base sequences.

Formation of an intramolecular G-quadruplex of human telomere induced by poly(L-lysine) under salt-deficient conditions

A single-stranded G-tract human telomere DNA sequence is able to fold into intramolecular G-quadruplex structures which may be important for a number of biological processes and disease-related mechanisms. Poly(L-lysine) (PLL) polymer is linear polypeptides with lysine as the repeat unit and has been employed as a gene carrier in achieving targeted delivery of DNA to cancer cells. To explore the influence of PLL on the conformation of Hum24 DNA, we have investigated the interaction of PLL with Hum24 by biophysical methods, mainly CD, ESI-MS, and polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis for the first time. The CD data have shown that PLL can induce single-stranded Hum24 to form an intramolecular parallel G-quadruplex structure, further confirmed by ESI-MS analysis and gel electrophoresis results. The formation of an intramolecular G-quadruplex is strongly dependent on the Hum24/PLL molar ratios and the length of both the polypeptides and oligonucleotide. Such phenomena may be interpreted by electrostatically attracting negative-charged Hum24 by positive-charged PLL which facilitates the close contact between the guanines and formation of hydrogen bonding, thus leading the final shape of a G-quadruplex structure.