Peptide nucleic acids (PNA) mimic DNA and RNA by forming complementary duplex structures following Watson-Crick base pairing. A set of reporter compounds that bind to DNA by intercalation are known, but these compounds do not intercalate in PNA/DNA hybrid duplexes. Analysis of the hybrid PNA duplexes requires development of reporter compounds that probe their chemical and physical properties. W...

In order to facilitate the removal of peptide nucleic acid (PNA), when necessary, from its duplexes and invasion complexes, a disulfide bond was introduced to its main chain. The disulfide bond was readily cleaved by various reducing agents (2-mercaptoethanol, dl-dithiothreitol, and tris(2-carboxyethyl)phosphine) even when the PNA was forming a duplex with its complementary DNA. The resultant t...

psuedopeptide backbone composed of N-(2-aminoethyl) glycine units, and nucleobases are attached by methylene carbonyl linkers (Fig. 1). Since the binding of PNA to DNA inhibits transcription, the potential of PNA has been focused to target an antisense drug.1 Moreover, PNA-peptides hybridization and improvements of the PNA backbone unit were developed to form DNA-DNA-PNA triplexes with nonspeci...

Mitochondria-rich cells (MR cells) of the gills of rainbow trout undergo changes in relative distribution and biochemical function during acclimation to partial-strength (10 per thousand ) and full-strength (30 per thousand ) seawater. In isolated total gill cells, Na(+)/K(+)-ATPase activity increased fivefold and H(+)-ATPase activity decreased fourfold when trout were acclimated to either 10 p...

In the search of facile and efficient methods for cellular delivery of peptide nucleic acids (PNA), we have synthesized PNAs conjugated to oligophosphonates via phosphonate glutamine and bis-phosphonate lysine amino acid derivatives thereby introducing up to twelve phosphonate moieties into a PNA oligomer. This modification of the PNA does not interfere with the nucleic acid target binding affi...

A fully automated solid-phase synthetic procedure for incorporation of positively charged guanidinium linkages into otherwise neutral PNA sequences has been employed. These DNG/PNA chimeras form [(DNG/ PNA)2‚DNA] triplexes upon binding to single strand or duplex DNA (with accompanying D-loop for the latter). The [(DNG/PNA)2‚DNA] triplexes of DNG/PNA T10, with DNA dA10, are more stable than DNA‚...

Peptide nucleic acids (PNAs) have been developed for applications in biotechnology and therapeutics. There is great potential in the development of chemically modified PNAs or other triplex-forming ligands that selectively bind to RNA duplexes, but not single-stranded regions, at near-physiological conditions. Here, we report on a convenient synthesis route to a modified PNA monomer, thio-pseud...

introduction: the cell surface glycoconjugate and extracellular matrix may mediate extracellular signals which decide the fate of the cells during tissue interactions. the proper development of cornea needs cellular interaction between surface epithelium, neural crest and developing lens. materials and methods: 50 pregnant rats were chosen and the embryos from pernatal day11-to 20 and postnatal...

Peptide nucleic acid (PNA), a DNA synthetic analog, assembles into helical duplexes as a consequence of Watson-Crick hydrogen bonds formed between nucleobases but has an achiral pseudo-peptide backbone, in contrast to DNA which has a phosphodiester backbone. Placing ligandmodified monomers in complementary positions in PNA oligomers makes possible metal ion incorporation within the PNA duplex (...

The potential use of peptide nucleic acid (PNA) as a sequence-specific inhibitor of RNA translation is investigated in this report. Three different regions of the PML/RARalpha oncogene, including two AUG potential start codons, were studied as targets of translation inhibition by antisense PNA in a cell-free system. A PNA targeted to the second AUG start codon, which was shown previously to be ...