State-of-the-Art Methodologies for the Discovery and Characterization of DNA G-Quadruplex Binders

Title:State-of-the-Art Methodologies for the Discovery and Characterization of DNA G-Quadruplex Binders

Volume: 18 Issue: 14

Author(s): Bruno Pagano, Sandro Cosconati, Valerie Gabelica, Luigi Petraccone, Stefano De Tito, Luciana Marinelli, Valeria La Pietra, Francesco Saverio di Leva, Ilaria Lauri, Roberta Trotta, Ettore Novellino, Concetta Giancola and Antonio Randazzo

Affiliation:

Keywords: G-quadruplex, isothermal titration calorimetry (ITC), fluorescence, nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR), circular dichroism (CD), computational methods, mass spectrometry (MS), immortalization, stabilization, quarfloxin

Abstract: Nowadays, the molecular basis of interaction between low molecular weight compounds and biological macromolecules is the subject of numerous investigations aimed at the rational design of molecules with specific therapeutic applications. In the last decades, it has been demonstrated that DNA quadruplexes play a critical role in several biological processes both at telomeric and gene promoting levels thus providing a great stride in the discovery of ligands able to interact with such a biologically relevant DNA conformation. So far, a number of experimental and computational approaches have been successfully employed in order to identify new ligands and to characterize their binding to the DNA. The main focus of this review is the description of these methodologies, placing a particular emphasis on computational methods, isothermal titration calorimetry (ITC), mass spectrometry (MS), nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR), circular dichroism (CD) and fluorescence spectroscopies.

Cite this article as:

Pagano Bruno, Cosconati Sandro, Gabelica Valerie, Petraccone Luigi, De Tito Stefano, Marinelli Luciana, La Pietra Valeria, Saverio di Leva Francesco, Lauri Ilaria, Trotta Roberta, Novellino Ettore, Giancola Concetta and Randazzo Antonio, State-of-the-Art Methodologies for the Discovery and Characterization of DNA G-Quadruplex Binders, Current Pharmaceutical Design 2012; 18 (14) . https://dx.doi.org/10.2174/138161212799958332