Molecular recognition of DNA binding agents: high-field 1H and 31P one- and two-dimensional NMR studies on the 1:1 intercalation complexes of mitoxantrone with selected oligodeoxyribonucleotides.

Abstract

The mechanisms whereby peptides, control proteins and xenobiotics recognize nucleic acids are fundamental to many important processes in biology and chemotherapy and appear to underlie their characteristic properties in vivo.1–4This applies to the recognition between enzymes or regulatory proteins and complementary binding sites,” to DNA-histone interactions,3,4 and in many cases of current clinical interest in anticancer and antiviral chemotherapy.5–7 The binding of such antineoplastic agents as doxorubicin, actinomycin, cis-platinum, mitomycin C, and echinomycin to cell target DNA invokes precise and highly specific interactions in molecular recognition.5,6 There is increasing knowledge from molecular biology of gene expression and control, DNA structure and topology and the recognition of sequences of unusual susceptibility to xenobiotics. This new information increases the prospects for rational anticancer drug design provided one can determine the structural factors controlling molecular recognition and binding.