We investigated the interaction of the short peptide nucleic acid (PNA) strand [acccca]-PNA with oligodeoxynucleotides containing one, two, or four tracts of TGGGGT units. Electrospray ionization mass spectrometry allowed exploring the wide variety of complex stoichiometries that were found to coexist in solution. In water, the PNA strand forms short heteroduplexes with the complementary DNA se...

Background Siblings of children with peanut allergy (PNA) are reported to have a higher prevalence of PNA than the general population. This prevalence may have both genetic and environmental influences, but may also reflect incorrect PNA diagnoses with less rigorous usage of confirmatory tests in siblings. The Peanut Allergy Registry (PAR), a Canadian database of individuals with PNA, was used ...

Peptide nucleic acids (PNAs) are promising tools for gene regulation. One of the challenges of using PNAs as gene regulators is the need to optimize the efficiency of interaction with critical sequences of DNA. To improve the efficiency of binding between PNAs and the HER-2/neu promoter, mono- and bis-pyrimidine-rich PNAs were conjugated to a nitrogen mustard at either the amino or carboxy term...

Hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection is a major cause of chronic active hepatitis, cirrhosis, and primary hepatocellular carcinoma, all of which are severe threats to human health. However, current clinical therapies for HBV are limited by potential side effects, toxicity, and drug-resistance. In this study, a cell-penetrating peptide-conjugated peptide nucleic acid (PNA), Tat-PNA-DR, was designed...

Peptide nucleic acids (PNAs) are DNA-mimicking molecules in which the sugar-phosphate backbone is replaced by a pseudopeptide backbone composed of N-(2-aminoethyl)glycine units. We determined whether double-stranded molecules based on PNAs and PNA-DNA-PNA (PDP) chimeras could be capable of stable interactions with nuclear proteins belonging to the Sp1 transcription factor family and, therefore,...

The conjugated polyene fatty acid parinaric acid (PnA) undergoes a stoichiometric loss in fluorescence upon oxidation and can be used to directly monitor peroxidative stress within lipid environments. We evaluated the course of potentially atherogenic oxidative changes in low density lipoproteins (LDL) by monitoring the oxidation of PnA following its incorporation into buoyant (p = 1.026-1.032 ...

Invasion of two PNA strands to double-stranded DNA is one of the most promising methods to recognize a predetermined site in double-stranded DNA (PNA = peptide nucleic acid). In order to facilitate this 'double-duplex invasion', a new type of PNA was prepared by using chiral PNA monomers in which a nucleobase was bound to the alpha-nitrogen of N-(2-aminoethyl)-d-lysine. These positively charged...

AIM Infants exposed to antidepressants in utero are at risk of developing poor neonatal adaptation (PNA). This study identified risk factors for PNA. METHODS In this cohort study, data on mothers and infants admitted to the maternity ward of a general hospital between 2007 and 2012 were analysed. All infants were exposed to an antidepressant during the last trimester of foetal life. The main ...

Peptide nucleic acid (PNA) has become an extremely powerful tool in chemistry and biology. Although PNA recognizes single-stranded nucleic acids with exceptionally high affinity and sequence selectivity, there is considerable ongoing effort to further improve properties of PNA for both fundamental science and practical applications. The present paper discusses selected recent studies that impro...

Peanut agglutinin (PNA) was known for its selective binding to cone cells. In the present study, we investigated whether there was any difference in PNA binding among various subtypes of cone photoreceptor cells in the dace retina. The outer segments of the long-double- and long-single-cone cells were preferentially labeled with PNA. Ultrastructural pre-embedding labeling revealed that the bind...