A versatile synthetic platform for the efficient immobilization of PNAs on magnetic iron oxides, providing magnetic nanosensors for selective DNA recognition, is presented.

Binding of bis-picolylamine-naphthalene diimide-peptide nucleic acid conjugates to complementary DNA is strongly dependent upon Zn2+; ultimately, hybridization is switched ON in the presence muM Zn2+.

PNAs conjugated to carrier peptides have been employed for the targeting of miRNA precursor, with the aim to develop molecules able to interfere in the pre-miRNA processing. The capability of the molecules to bind pre-miRNA has been tested in vitro by fluorescence assayes on Thiazole Orange labeled molecules and in vivo, in K562 cells, evaluating the amount of miRNA produced after treatment of ...

Significance Research on the chemical origin of life comprises one most exciting topics in contemporary science. Prebiotic chemistry provided evidence that precursors both nucleic acids and proteins might be formed prebiotic environment. Yet, studies nonenzymatic replication—a central mechanism driving evolution—focused largely each class these molecules separately. This paper reveals a success...

Peptide nucleic acid (PNA) is an analog of natural acids, where the sugar-phosphate backbone DNA replaced by electrostatically neutral N-(2-aminoethyl)glycine backbone. This unique peptide-based enables PNAs to form a very stable duplex with complementary acids via Watson–Crick base pairing since there no electrostatic repulsion between PNA and DNA·RNA. With this high affinity, have been used i...

We have shown previously that a peptide, MPG, derived from the hydrophobic fusion peptide of HIV-1 gp41 and the hydrophilic nuclear localisation sequence of SV40 large T antigen, can be used as a powerful tool for the delivery of oligonucleotides into cultured cells. Now we extend the potential of MPG to the delivery of nucleic acids into cultured cells. In vitro, MPG interacts strongly with nu...

Peptide nucleic acids (PNAs) are structural mimics of nucleic acids that form stable hybrids with DNA and RNA. In addition, PNAs can invade double-stranded DNA. Due to these characteristics, PNAs are widely used as biochemical tools, for example, in antisense/antigene therapy. Interstrand crosslink formation in nucleic acids is one of the strategies for preparing a stable duplex by covalent bon...