FeII Metallohelices Stabilize DNA G-Quadruplexes and Downregulate the Expression of G-Quadruplex-Regulated Oncogenes. Malina, J., Kostrhunova, H., Scott, P., & Brabec, V. CHEMISTRY-A EUROPEAN JOURNAL, 27(45):11682–11692, August, 2021.
doi  abstract   bibtex   
DNA G-quadruplexes (G4s) have been identified within the promoter regions of many proto-oncogenes. Thus, G4s represent attractive targets for cancer therapy, and the design and development of new drugs as G4 binders is a very active field of medicinal chemistry. Here, molecular biophysics and biology methods were employed to investigate the interaction of chiral metallohelices with a series of four DNA G4s (hTelo, c-myc, c-kit1, c-kit2) that are formed by the human telomeric sequence (hTelo) and in the promoter regions of c-MYC and c-KIT proto-oncogenes. We show that the investigated water-compatible, optically pure metallohelices, which are made by self-assembly of simple nonpeptidic organic components around Fe-II ions and exhibit bioactivity emulating the natural systems, bind with high affinity to G4 DNA and much lower affinity to duplex DNA. Notably, both enantiomers of a metallohelix containing a m-xylenyl bridge (5 b) were found to effectively inhibit primer elongation catalyzed by Taq DNA polymerase by stabilizing G4 structures formed in the template strands containing c-myc and c-kit2 G4-forming sequences. Moreover, both enantiomers of 5 b downregulated the expression of c-MYC and c-KIT oncogenes in human embryonic kidney cells at mRNA and protein levels. As metallohelices also bind alternative nucleic acid structures, they hold promise as potential multitargeted drugs.
@article{malina_feii_2021,
	title = {{FeII} {Metallohelices} {Stabilize} {DNA} {G}-{Quadruplexes} and {Downregulate} the {Expression} of {G}-{Quadruplex}-{Regulated} {Oncogenes}},
	volume = {27},
	issn = {0947-6539},
	doi = {10.1002/chem.202101388},
	abstract = {DNA G-quadruplexes (G4s) have been identified within the promoter regions of many proto-oncogenes. Thus, G4s represent attractive targets for cancer therapy, and the design and development of new drugs as G4 binders is a very active field of medicinal chemistry. Here, molecular biophysics and biology methods were employed to investigate the interaction of chiral metallohelices with a series of four DNA G4s (hTelo, c-myc, c-kit1, c-kit2) that are formed by the human telomeric sequence (hTelo) and in the promoter regions of c-MYC and c-KIT proto-oncogenes. We show that the investigated water-compatible, optically pure metallohelices, which are made by self-assembly of simple nonpeptidic organic components around Fe-II ions and exhibit bioactivity emulating the natural systems, bind with high affinity to G4 DNA and much lower affinity to duplex DNA. Notably, both enantiomers of a metallohelix containing a m-xylenyl bridge (5 b) were found to effectively inhibit primer elongation catalyzed by Taq DNA polymerase by stabilizing G4 structures formed in the template strands containing c-myc and c-kit2 G4-forming sequences. Moreover, both enantiomers of 5 b downregulated the expression of c-MYC and c-KIT oncogenes in human embryonic kidney cells at mRNA and protein levels. As metallohelices also bind alternative nucleic acid structures, they hold promise as potential multitargeted drugs.},
	number = {45},
	urldate = {2021-07-11},
	journal = {CHEMISTRY-A EUROPEAN JOURNAL},
	author = {Malina, Jaroslav and Kostrhunova, Hana and Scott, Peter and Brabec, Viktor},
	month = aug,
	year = {2021},
	pages = {11682--11692},
}

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