title: Is there any interaction between telomeric DNA structures, G-quadruplex and I-motif, with saffron active metabolites?
abstract: Telomeric DNA contains some unique secondary structures, such as G-quadruplex and I-motif. These structures may be stabilized or changed by binding to specific proteins or small molecules. Herein, we report the in vitro effect of crocin, crocetin, picrocrocin, and safranal on these structures. Circular dichroism (CD) data indicate that crocetin has higher affinity for these structures. Safranal and crocin induce little change in the I-motif and G-quadruplex, respectively. The molecular docking confirms the experimental data and indicates the minor groove binding of ligands with G-quadruplex. The possibility for application of these ligands as sequence-specific drugs should be further investigated.
authors.affiliation: Department of Clinical Biochemistry, Faculty of Medical Sciences, Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran, Iran.
authors.forename: Reyhane
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Hoshyar
authors.forename: S Zahra
authors.initials: SZ
authors.lastname: Bathaie
authors.forename: Anahita
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Kyani
authors.forename: Mir Fazlollah
authors.initials: MF
authors.lastname: Mousavi
mesh_terms: D002942:Circular Dichroism; D027622:Crocus / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000378:metabolism; D004247:DNA / Q000737:chemistry*; D035264:Flowers / Q000737:chemistry; D054856:G-Quadruplexes; D008024:Ligands; D008958:Models, Molecular; D015394:Molecular Structure; D059372:Nucleotide Motifs; D016615:Telomere / Q000737:chemistry*
chemical_list: D008024:Ligands; D004247:DNA