Adriamycin, a cancerostatic anthracycline antibiotic, causes considerable death of tumour cells, together with the induction of breaks in DNA single and double strands. The interaction of this compound with DNA was investigated using an electrochemical DNA-biosensor. Adriamycin intercalation in DNA disrupts the double helix and the detection of guanine and 8-oxoguanine could mimic one possible ...

A spiropyran photoswitch is activated using UV light and protons from a form that shows no interaction with DNA to a form that binds to DNA by intercalation. This scheme is interpreted as a biologically relevant logic AND gate with potential applications as a dually controlled anticancer drug.

The intercalation of thalidomide (alpha-phthalimidoglutarimide) into nucleic acids was studied by spectrophotometric titrations, displacement of known intercalators, viscosity changes of DNA solutions, and by phase partition analysis. Specific binding of thalidomide was found to DNA of various specimens (human placenta, calf thymus, salmon sperm), but not to RNA (from bakers yeast, torula yeast).

We have evaluated the sugar pucker geometry at the intercalation site of propidium diiodide into the self-complementary dinucleoside monophosphate duplexes cytidylylguanosine and deoxycytidylyldeoxyguanosine as a function of the nucleotide/drug ratio in aqueous solution. Our solution results support the observation by Sobell and coworkers [Sobell, H.M., Tsai, C.C., Jain, S.C. & Gilbert, S.G. (1...

Opposite enantiomers of [Ru(phenanthroline)(3)](2+) affect the persistence length of DNA differently, a long speculated effect of helix kinking. Our molecular dynamics simulations confirm a substantial change of duplex secondary structure produced by wedge-intercalation of one but not the other enantiomer. This effect is exploited by several classes of DNA operative proteins.

The absorption and circular dichroism spectra of the intercalation complexes with DNA of the 9-aminoacridine chromophore in monoand bisfunctional forms have been determined in the visible/near-ultraviolet region. The experimental spectra were deconvoluted into contributions from three (It*, n) transitions and the dipole and rotatory strengths of one long-axis and one shortaxis polarized transit...

In this work, we report experimental and computational evidence for the intercalation into the DNA base-pairs of the free quinones quinizarin (Q) and naphthazarin (N) and the interstrand covalent binding of their p-cymene di-ruthenium(ii) complexes (Cl2Ru2X, with X = N, Q bridging ligands). The intercalation extent for the N complex was larger than that for Q, which is in good agreement with th...

Single T4-DNA molecules were confined in rectangular-shaped channels with a depth of 300 nm and a width in the range of 150-300 nm casted in a poly(dimethylsiloxane) nanofluidic chip. The extensions of the DNA molecules were measured with fluorescence microscopy as a function of the ionic strength and composition of the buffer as well as the DNA intercalation level by the YOYO-1 dye. The data w...

The interaction of anticancer chalcone [AMC, 1-(4'-aminophenyl)-3-(4-N,N-dimethylphenyl)-2-propen-1-one] with DNA has been explored using electrochemical, spectroscopic and viscometric techniques. A shift in peak potential and decrease in peak current were observed in cyclic voltammetry and hypochromism accompanied with bathochromic shift were noticed in UV-Vis absorption spectroscopy. These fi...

DNA intercalators are planar molecules that insert between the base pairs of duplex DNA. Intercalation into DNA necessarily results in changes in DNA conformation, separating base pairs along the helical axis; thus, intercalators are of great importance as probes of nucleic acid structure and as interferents of DNA replication, transcription, and/or topoisomerase activities. Relationships betwe...