Chemotherapy is still the most important method of cancer treatment. To make this method more effective and safe, new drugs to destroy cancer cells are needed. Some bis-naphthalimide derivatives show potential anticancer activity via an intercalation mechanism. A higher degree of DNA intercalation corresponds to better therapeutic effects. The degree of intercalation of naphthalimides depends o...

While many intercalated psoralens require a 1.3-mus relaxation time between absorption of the first and second photons for cross-link formation to occur, some psoralens can form cross-links within the lifetime of a 10-ns laser pulse. This effect is largely or completely oxygen independent. Structural, kinetic, and energetic considerations suggest that the 1.3-mus delay may be due to a conformat...

We report the synthesis of two C4'-modified DNA analogues and characterize their structural impact on dsDNA duplexes. The 4'-C-piperazinomethyl modification stabilizes dsDNA by up to 5°C per incorporation. Extension of the modification with a butanoyl-linked pyrene increases the dsDNA stabilization to a maximum of 9°C per incorporation. Using fluorescence, ultraviolet and nuclear magnetic reson...

A complex of salmon milt deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) and the cationic surfactant cetyltrimethylammonium (CTMA) forms an organic-soluble biomaterial that can be readily incorporated within an organically modified silane-based xerogel. The photoluminescence (PL) intensity and excited-state luminescence lifetime of tris(4,7'-diphenyl-1,10'-phenanathroline) ruthenium(II) [(Ru(dpp)3](2+), a common O...

In the last decade, live cell fluorescence microscopy experiments have revolutionized cellular and molecular biology, enabling the localization of proteins within cellular compartments to be analysed and to determine kinetic parameters of enzymatic reactions in living nuclei to be measured. Recently, in vivo DNA labelling by DNA-stains such as DRAQ5, has provided the opportunity to measure kine...

The interaction of [Co(H2O)4(p-NO2C6H4COO)2] 2H2O with sheep genomic DNA has been investigated by spectroscopic studies and electrophoresis measurements. The interaction between cobalt(II) p-nitrobenzoate and DNA has been followed by gel electrophoresis while the concentration of the complex was increased from 0 to 14 mM. The spectroscopic study and electrophoretic experiments support the fact ...

Escherichia coli chromosome DNA was observed previously to consist of subunits of Archimedean spirallike supercoiling. How do cells build such a DNA structure remains unknown. In the present study, atomic force microscopy (AFM) images showed that supercoiled pBR322 DNA forms a spiral structure upon intercalation with 0.5 μg/ml ethidium bromide (EB), which used to be considered as zero superheli...

For the first time, the interaction between a series of small molecules and the TAR RNA of HIV-1 has been investigated by electric linear dichroism (ELD). The compounds tested include the DNA intercalating drugs proflavine and ethidium bromide and an amsacrine-4-carboxamide DNA-threading intercalator as well as the AT-specific DNA minor groove binders netropsin, Hoechst 33258, berenil and DAPI....

In this study, we present the work on the physicochemical interaction between the anti-cancer alkaloidberberine (BRB) and DNA with the purpose of designing drugs that interact more with DNA. Molecularmodeling on the complex formed between berberine and DNA presented that this complex was undeniablyfully able of participating in the formation of a stable intercalation site. Besides, the molecula...