Abstract

Nitrobiphenyl photosensitizer (NBP)-peptide nucleic acids (PNA) conjugates were synthesized to develop a tool for photo-knockdown of target DNAs. The presence of NBP hardly hindered duplex formation with the complementary single strand DNA as demonstrated by the comparison of Tm values and CD spectra with those for standard PNA/DNA duplexes. However, the photooxidation of guanines in NBP-PNA/DNAs was significantly less effective than those of corresponding NBP-DNA/DNA. Production of singlet oxygen (1O2) during the photooxidation was confirmed by consumption of furfuryl alcohol, a 1O2 detector. The poor photooxidation efficiency was ameliorated with 1O2 generated from an externally added NBP derivative. It was found that, when complexed with the sticky end of a double strand DNA, NBP-PNA was able to photooxidize G in the DNA/DNA duplex region, whereas G in the PNA/DNA duplex region was considerably unreactive. These results suggest that 1O2 produced from NBP-PNA tends to quench during diffusion along the PNA/DNA backbone, whereas quenching is less likely during diffusion along DNA/DNA region.

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