With few exceptions, experimental success in molecular biology is dependent upon specific, discriminating, and persistent hybridization events involving synthetic oligonucleotides and their complementary target sequences. While unmodified oligodeoxynucleotides will routinely form desired DNA:DNA and DNA:RNA duplexes, synthesis of various modifications that confer enhanced high-affinity recognit...

Locked nucleic acids (LNAs) are synthetic analogs of nucleic acids that contain a bridging methylene carbon between the 2' and 4' positions of the ribose ring. In this study, we generated a novel sequence-specific antigene molecule "Zorro LNA", which simultaneously binds to both strands, and that induced effective and specific strand invasion into DNA duplexes and potent inhibition of gene tran...

Peptide nucleic acids (PNAs) are neutral mimics of natural DNA and RNA biopolymers that have caught the attention researchers working on identification specific sequences nucleobases in DNA/RNA strands. For this purpose, analytical protocols need to be developed optimize acid recognition ability PNAs, exploiting both high intrinsic affinity PNA/DNA(RNA) couples as well suitable markers, either ...

Here we report the solid phase synthesis and characterization (LC-ESIMS, CD) of a cationic nucleobase-containing α-peptide, composed of both l-arginine residues and l-lysine-based nucleoamino acids sequentially present in the structure. The binding properties of this novel basic nucleopeptide towards nucleic acids were investigated by CD spectroscopy which revealed the ability of the thymine-co...