The susceptibility of the bicyclic nucleoside analogs (BCNAs), highly potent and selective inhibitors of varicella-zoster virus (VZV), to the enzymes involved in nucleoside/nucleobase catabolism has been investigated in comparison with the established anti-VZV agent (E)-5-(2-bromovinyl)-2'-deoxyuridine [BVDU; brivudine (Zostex)]. Whereas human and bacterial thymidine phosphorylases (TPases) eff...

A comprehensive effort in photodynamical ab initio simulations of the ultrafast deactivation pathways for all five nucleobases adenine, guanine, cytosine, thymine, and uracil is reported. These simulations are based on a complete nonadiabatic surface-hopping approach using extended multiconfigurational wave functions. Even though all five nucleobases share the basic internal conversion mechanis...

We here show that the pKa (error limit: 0.01 to 0.03 pKa unit) of a nucleobase in a nucleotide can be modulated by the chemical nature of the 2'-substituent at the sugar moiety. This has been evidenced by the measurement of nucleobase pKa in 47 different model nucleoside 3',5'-bis- and 3'-mono-ethylphosphates. The fact that the electronic character of each of the 2'-substituents (Fig. 1) alters...

[reaction: see text] The Silyl-Hilbert-Johnson reaction as well as the nucleobase-anion glycosylation of a series of 7-deazapurines has been investigated, and the 7-functionalized 7-deazapurine ribonucleosides were prepared. Glycosylation of the 7-halogenated 6-chloro-2-pivaloylamino-7-deazapurines 9b-d with 1-O-acetyl-2,3,5-tri-O-benzoyl-D-ribofuranose (5) gave the beta-D-nucleosides 11b-d (73...

DNA damage induced via dissociative attachment by low-energy electrons (0 to 20 eV) is well studied in both gas and condensed phases. However, the reactivity of ultrashort-lived prehydrated electrons ([Formula: see text]) with DNA components in a biologically relevant environment has not been fully explored to date. The electron transfer processes of [Formula: see text] to the DNA nucleobases G...

Electron ionization of the DNA nucleobase, adenine, and the tRNA nucleobase, hypoxanthine, was investigated near the threshold region (∼5-20 eV) using a high-resolution hemispherical electron monochromator and a quadrupole mass spectrometer. Ion efficiency curves of the threshold regions and the corresponding appearance energies (AEs) are presented for the parent cations and the five most abund...

A number of reports have been made in recent times on label-free detection of nucleic acid sequences. However, most of these studies deal with ensemble measurements, therefore lacking in molecular level resolution. These assays have usually employed ssDNA sensor probes, and often suffered from problems of irreproducibility and poor sequence-selectivity. Herein, the applicability of surface-anch...

Triplexes are formed when a triplex-forming oligonucleotide (TFO), typically a short single stranded oligonucleotide recognizes a triplex-forming sequence (TFS) in a duplex DNA by means of specific hydrogen-bond interactions between the central Watson-Crick and the third nucleobase. Two types of triplexes exist: i) parallel triplexes based on the pyrimidine motif and Hoogsteen-type recognition ...

The kinetic properties and control mechanisms of 5-fluorouracil (5-FU), uracil, and thymine degradation by rat liver dihydropyrimidine dehydrogenase were studied in vitro. The calculated Michaelis constant (Km) for 5-FU was 3.49 +/- 0.41 (SE) microM, similar to those for uracil (2.26 +/- 0.28 microM) and for thymine (2.23 +/- 0.34 microM). However, the reduction of 5-FU appears to be most sensi...