title: Physico-chemical analysis of G-quadruplex containing bunch-oligonucleotides.
abstract: A growing number of evidences suggest that DNA G-quadruplex structures play an important role in many relevant biological processes. The introduction of chemical modifications in quadruplex structures could enhance the in vivo biological activity. The correlation between the physico-chemical properties and chemical modifications represents an essential step toward the de novo design of quadruplex forming oligonucleotides for biomedical applications. We report the physico-chemical characterisation of a quadruplex formed by a bunch of four d(TG4T) oligonucleotides whose 3'-ends are linked together by a tetra-branched linker. The study was performed by circular dichroism, gel electrophoresis and molecular modelling techniques. The data indicate an high stability for this kind of quadruplex and add some information on the role of the tetra-branched linker on the quadruplex stability.
authors.affiliation: Dipartimento di Scienze Farmaceutiche, Via Ponte Don Melillo, 84084 Fisciano (SA), Italy.
authors.forename: Luigi
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Petraccone
authors.forename: Luigi
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Martino
authors.forename: Ida
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Duro
authors.forename: Giorgia
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Oliviero
authors.forename: Nicola
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Borbone
authors.forename: Gennaro
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Piccialli
authors.forename: Concetta
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Giancola
mesh_terms: D008958:Models, Molecular; D009690:Nucleic Acid Conformation; D009838:Oligodeoxyribonucleotides / Q000138:chemical synthesis / Q000737:chemistry*
chemical_list: D009838:Oligodeoxyribonucleotides