| 1. |
- Acharya, Parag, 1972-
(author)
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Studies on the Non-covalent Interactions (Stereoelectronics, Stacking and Hydrogen Bonding) in the Self-assembly of DNA and RNA
- 2003
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Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic)abstract
- This thesis is based on ten publications (Papers I-X). The phosphodiester backbone makes DNA or RNA to behave as polyelectrolyte, the pentose sugar gives the flexibility, and the aglycones promote the self-assembly or the ligand-binding process. The hydrogen bonding, stacking, stereoelectronics and hydration are few of the important non-covalent forces dictating the self-assembly of DNA/RNA. The pH-dependent thermodynamics clearly show (Papers I and II) that a change of the electronic character of aglycone modulates the conformation of the sugar moiety by the tunable interplay of stereoelectronic anomeric and gauche effects, which are further transmitted to steer the sugar-phosphate backbone conformation in a cooperative manner. 3'-anthraniloyl adenosine (a mimic of 3'-teminal CCAOH of the aminoacyl-tRNAPhe) binds to EF-Tu*GTP in preference over 2'-anthraniloyl adenosine, thereby showing (Paper III) that the 2’-endo sugar conformation is a more suitable mimic of the transition state geometry than the 3’-endo conformation in discriminating between correctly and incorrectly charged aminoacyl-tRNAPhe by EF-Tu during protein synthesis. The presence of 2'-OH in RNA distinguishes it from DNA both functionally as well as structurally. This work (Paper IV) provides straightforward NMR evidence to show that the 2'-OH is intramolecularly hydrogen bonded with the vicinal 3'-oxygen, and the exposure of the 3'-phosphate of the ribonucleotides to the bulk water determines the availability of the bound water around the vicinal 2'-OH, which then can play various functional role through inter- or intramolecular interactions. The pH-dependent 1H NMR study with nicotinamide derivatives demonstrates (Paper V) that the cascade of intramolecular cation (pyridinium)-π(phenyl)-CH(methyl) interaction in edge-to-face geometry is responsible for perturbing the pKa of the pyridine-nitrogen as well as for the modulation of the aromatic character of the neighboring phenyl moiety, which is also supported by the T1 relaxation studies and ab initio calculations. It has been found (Papers VI-IX) that the variable intramolecular electrostatic interaction between electronically coupled nearest neighbor nucleobases (steered by their respective microenvironments) can modulate their respective pseudoaromatic characters. The net result of this pseudoaromatic cross-modulation is the creation of a unique set of aglycones in an oligo or polynucleotide, whose physico-chemical properties are completely dependent upon the propensity and geometry of the nearest neighbor interactions (extended genetic code). The propagation of the interplay of these electrostatic interactions across the hexameric ssDNA chain is considerably less favoured (effectively up to the fourth nucleobase) compared to that of the isosequential ssRNA (up to the sixth nucleobase). The dissection of the relative strength of basepairing and stacking in a duplex shows that stability of DNA-DNA duplex weakens over the corresponding RNA-RNA duplexes with the increasing content of A-T/U base pairs, while the strength of stacking of A-T rich DNA-DNA duplex increases in comparison with A-U rich sequence in RNA-RNA duplexes (Paper X).
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| 2. |
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| 3. |
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| 4. |
- Acharya, Sandipta, 1972-
(author)
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Some Aspects of Physicochemical Properties of DNA and RNA
- 2006
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Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic)abstract
- This thesis is based on nine research publications (I – IX) on structure and reactivity of RNA vis-à-vis DNA. The DNA and RNA are made of flexible pentose sugar units, polyelectrolytic phosphodiester backbone, and heterocyclic nucleobases. DNA stores our genetic code, whereas RNA is involved both in protein biosynthesis and catalysis. Various ligand-binding and recognition properties of DNA/RNA are mediated through inter- and intra-molecular H-bonding and stacking interactions, beside hydration, van der Waal and London dispersion forces. In this work the pH dependant chemical shift, pKa values of 2'-OH group as well as those the nucleobases in different sequence context, alkaline hydrolysis of the internucleotidic phosphodiester bonds and analysis of NOESY footprints along with NMR constrained molecular dynamics simulation were used as tools to explore and understand the physico-chemical behavior of various nucleic acid sequences, and the forces involved in their self-assembly process. Papers I – II showed that the ionization of 2'-OH group is nucleobase-dependant. Paper III showed that the chemical characters of internucleotidic phosphate are non-identical in RNA compared to that of DNA. Papers IV – VI show that variable intramolecular electrostatic interactions between electronically coupled nearest neighbor nucleobases in a ssRNA can modulate their respective pseudoaromatic character, and result in creation of a unique set of aglycons with unique properties depending on propensity and geometry of nearest neighbor interaction. Paper VII showed that the cross-modulation of the pseudoaromatic character of nucleobases by the nearest neighbor is sequence-dependant in nature in oligonucleotides. Paper VIII showed that the purine-rich hexameric ssDNA and ssRNA retain the right-handed helical structure (B-type in ssDNA and A-type in ssRNA) in the single-stranded form even in absence of intermolecular hydrogen bonding. The directionality of stacking geometry however differs in ssDNA compared to ssRNA. In ssDNA the relatively electron-rich imidazole stacks above the electron-deficient pyrimidine in the 5' to 3' direction, in contradistinction, the pyrimidine stacks above the imidazole in the 5' to 3' direction in ssRNA. Paper IX showed that the pKa values of the nucleobases in monomeric nucleotides can be used to show that a RNA-RNA duplex is more stable than a DNA-DNA duplex. The dissection of the relative strength of base-pairing and stacking showed that the relative contribution of former compared to that of the latter in an RNA-RNA over the corresponding DNA-DNA duplexes decreases with the increasing content of A-T/U base pairs in a sequence.
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| 5. |
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| 6. |
- Barman, Jharna, et al.
(author)
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Non-identical electronic characters of the internucleotidic phosphates in RNA modulate the chemical reactivity of the phosphodiester bonds
- 2006
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In: Organic and biomolecular chemistry. - 1477-0520 .- 1477-0539. ; 4:5, s. 928-941
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- We here show that the electronic properties and the chemical reactivities of the internucleotidic phosphates in the heptameric ssRNAs are dissimilar in a sequence-specific manner because of their non-identical microenvironments, in contrast with the corresponding isosequential ssDNAs. This has been evidenced by monitoring the delta H8(G) shifts upon pH-dependent ionization (pK(a1)) of the central 9-guaninyl (G) to the 9-guanylate ion (G(-)), and its electrostatic effect on each of the internucleotidic phosphate anions, as measured from the resultant delta P-31 shifts (pKa(2)) in the isosequential heptameric ssRNAs vis-`a-vis ssDNAs: [d/r( 5'-Cp(1)Ap(2)Q(1)p(3)Gp(4)Q(2)p(5)Ap(6)C-3'): Q(1) = Q(2) = A (5a/5b) or C (8a/8b), Q(1) = A, Q(2) = C (6a/6b), Q(1) = C, Q(2) = A (7a/7b)]. These oligos with single ionizable G in the centre are chosen because of the fact that the pseudoaromatic character of G can be easily modulated in a pH-dependent manner by its transformation to G(-) (the 2'-OH to 2-O- ionization effect is not detectable below pH 11.6 as evident from the N1-Me-G analog), thereby modulating/titrating the nature of the electrostatic interactions of G to G- with the phosphates, which therefore constitute simple models to interrogate how the variable pseudoaromatic characters of nucleobases under different sequence context (J. Am. Chem. Soc., 2004, 126, 8674-8681) can actually influence the reactivity of the internucleotide phosphates as a result of modulation of sequence context-specific electrostatic interactions. In order to better understand the impact of the electrostatic effect of the G to G- on the tunability of the electronic character of internucleotidic phosphates in the heptameric ssRNAs 5b, 6b, 7b and 8b, we have also performed their alkaline hydrolysis at pH 12.5 at 20 degrees C, and have identified the preferences of the cleavage sites at various phosphates, which are p(2), p(3) and p(4) (Fig. 3). The results of these alkaline hydrolysis studies have been compared with the hydrolysis of analogous N1-Me-G heptameric ssRNA sequences 5c, 7c and 8c under identical conditions in order to establish the role of the electrostatic effect of the 9-guanylate ion (and the 2'-OH to 2-O- ionization) on the internucleotidic phosphate. It turned out that the relative alkaline hydrolysis rate at those particular phosphates ( p2, p3 and p(4)) in the N1-Me-G heptamers was reduced from 16-78% compared to those in the native counterparts [Fig. 4, and ESI 2 (Fig. S11)]. Thus, these physico-chemical studies have shown that those p2, p3 and p4 phosphates in the native heptameric RNAs, which show pK(a2) as well as more deshielding ( owing to weaker P-31 screening) in the alkaline pH compared to those at the neutral pH, are more prone to the alkaline hydrolysis because of their relatively enhanced electrophilic character resulting from weaker P-31 screening. This screening effect originates as a result of the systematic charge repulsion effect between the electron cloud in the outermost orbitals of phosphorus and the central guanylate ion, leading to delocalization of the phosphorus pp charge into its d pi orbitals. It is thus likely that, just as in the non-enzymatic hydrolysis, the enzymatic hydrolysis of a specific phosphate in RNA by general base-catalyss in RNA-cleaving proteins (RNase A, RNA phosphodiesterase or nuclease) can potentially be electrostatically influenced by tuning the transient charge on the nucleobase in the steric proximity or as a result of specific sequence context owing to nearest-neighbor interactions.
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| 7. |
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| 8. |
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| 9. |
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| 10. |
- Bramsen, Jesper B., et al.
(author)
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A large-scale chemical modification screen identifies design rules to generate siRNAs with high activity, high stability and low toxicity
- 2009
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In: Nucleic Acids Research. - : Oxford University Press. - 0305-1048 .- 1362-4962. ; 37:9, s. 2867-2881
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- The use of chemically synthesized short interfering RNAs (siRNAs) is currently the method of choice to manipulate gene expression in mammalian cell culture, yet improvements of siRNA design is expectably required for successful application in vivo. Several studies have aimed at improving siRNA performance through the introduction of chemical modifications but a direct comparison of these results is difficult. We have directly compared the effect of 21 types of chemical modifications on siRNA activity and toxicity in a total of 2160 siRNA duplexes. We demonstrate that siRNA activity is primarily enhanced by favouring the incorporation of the intended antisense strand during RNA-induced silencing complex (RISC) loading by modulation of siRNA thermodynamic asymmetry and engineering of siRNA 3'-overhangs. Collectively, our results provide unique insights into the tolerance for chemical modifications and provide a simple guide to successful chemical modification of siRNAs with improved activity, stability and low toxicity.
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| 11. |
- Bramsen, Jesper B., et al.
(author)
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A screen of chemical modifications identifies position-specific modification by UNA to most potently reduce siRNA off-target effects
- 2010
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In: Nucleic Acids Research. - : Oxford University Press (OUP). - 0305-1048 .- 1362-4962. ; 38:17, s. 5761-5773
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Small interfering RNAs (siRNAs) are now established as the preferred tool to inhibit gene function in mammalian cells yet trigger unintended gene silencing due to their inherent miRNA-like behavior. Such off-target effects are primarily mediated by the sequence-specific interaction between the siRNA seed regions (position 2-8 of either siRNA strand counting from the 5'-end) and complementary sequences in the 3'UTR of (off-) targets. It was previously shown that chemical modification of siRNAs can reduce off-targeting but only very few modifications have been tested leaving more to be identified. Here we developed a luciferase reporter-based assay suitable to monitor siRNA off-targeting in a high throughput manner using stable cell lines. We investigated the impact of chemically modifying single nucleotide positions within the siRNA seed on siRNA function and off-targeting using 10 different types of chemical modifications, three different target sequences and three siRNA concentrations. We found several differently modified siRNAs to exercise reduced off-targeting yet incorporation of the strongly destabilizing unlocked nucleic acid (UNA) modification into position 7 of the siRNA most potently reduced off-targeting for all tested sequences. Notably, such position-specific destabilization of siRNA-target interactions did not significantly reduce siRNA potency and is therefore well suited for future siRNA designs especially for applications in vivo where siRNA concentrations, expectedly, will be low.
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| 12. |
- Chatterjee, Subhrangsu, et al.
(author)
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Sequence-specific Solution Structures of the Four Isosequential Pairs of Single-stranded DNAs and RNAs
- 2008
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In: Nature Precedings.
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Journal article (other academic/artistic)abstract
- The role of the sequence-context in the self-organization of four single-stranded (ss) isosequential pairs of DNAs (1 – 4) and RNAs (5 – 8), [d/r-(5’C1A2X3G4Y5A6C7): X3 = A or C, Y5 = A or C; sequence variations: 22 = 4], has been elucidated by NMR-constrained Molecular Dynamics (MD) simulations (2 ns). Following sequence-specific observations have been made from the solution NMR and the NMR constrained MD simulation study: (i) Analysis of the NOESY footprints, mainly (H8/H6)n to (H1’ and H3’)n-1 contacts, of ssDNAs (1 – 4) and ssRNAs (5 – 8) in the aqueous medium have shown that all ssDNAs (1 – 4) and ssRNAs (5 – 8) adopt right handed stacked helical structures in the NMR time scale. (ii) Intra-residual cross-peak intensities for the H(8/6)n- H(1’/2’/2’’/H3’)n contacts in ssDNAs and ssRNAs are stronger at the 3’-ends in comparison with those at the 5’-ends, suggesting that the dynamics of the nucleobases at the 3’-end are more restricted, whereas those at the 5’-end are more flexible. (iii) This relative NMR found mobility is consistent with the final RMSd calculations of the final NMR-MD structures of ssDNAs and ssRNAs. They show that the 5’-end nucleobases have higher RMSd values compared to those at the 3’-end, except for the sequence d/r(5’C1A2A3G4A5A6C7). (iv) Relative nOe intensities of inter-residual H(8/6)n – H(1’)n-1 and H(8/6)n – H(3’)n-1 contacts, as well as NMR observed fluctuations in the sugar conformations, for ssDNAs (1 – 4) and ssRNAs (5 – 8) show that no ssDNA or ssRNA adopts either a typical B-type DNA or A-type RNA form. (v) In the final NMR-MD structures all the [H8/6N(n)—H1’N(n-1)/ H3’N(n-1), N = A, G, C] distances in different isosequential pairs of ssDNA (1 – 4) and ssRNA (5 – 8) change depending upon the sequence context of the single-stranded nucleic acids. Both in the deoxy and ribo series, it is the purine-rich sequences [d/r-(5’C1A2A3G4A5A6C7) which form the most stable self-organized right-handed helical structures because of the favorable purine-purine stacking interactions. (vi) Stacking pattern at each of the dinucleotide steps show that the base-base nearest neighbor stacking interactions depend solely upon the sequence contexts of the respective ssDNAs (1 – 4) and ssRNAs (5 – 8). See pages 47 – 145 for Supplementary Information for detailed spectroscopic data.
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| 13. |
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| 14. |
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| 15. |
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| 16. |
- Dixit, Shailesh S., et al.
(author)
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New parasite inhibitors encompassing novel conformationally-locked 5 '-acyl sulfamoyl adenosines
- 2012
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In: Organic and biomolecular chemistry. - : Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC). - 1477-0520 .- 1477-0539. ; 10:30, s. 6121-6129
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- We describe the design, synthesis and biological evaluation of conformationally-locked 5'-acyl sulfamoyl adenosine derivatives as new parasitic inhibitors against Trypanosoma and Leishmania. The conformationally-locked (3'-endo, North-type) nucleosides have been synthesized by covalently attaching a 4'-CH2-O-2' bridge (Fig. 2) across C2'-C4' of adenosine in order to reduce the conformational flexibility of the pentose ring. This is designed to decrease the entropic penalty for complex formation with the target protein, which may improve free-energy of stabilization of the complex leading to improved potency. Conformationally-locked 5'-acyl sulfamoyl adenosine derivatives (16-22) were tested against parasitic protozoans for the first time in this work, and showed potent inhibition of Trypanosoma cruzi, Trypanosoma brucei, Trypanosoma rhodesiense and Leishmania infantum with IC50 = 0.25-0.51 mu M. In particular, the potent 5'-pentanyl acyl sulfamoyl adenosine derivative 17 (IC50 = 0.25 mu M) against intracellular L. infantum amastigotes and Trypanosoma subspecies is interesting in view of its almost insignificant cytotoxicity in murine macrophage host cells (CC50 >4 mu M) and in diploid human fibroblasts MRC-5 cell lines (CC50 4 mu M). This work also suggests that variable alkyl chain length of the acyl group on the acylsulfamoyl side chain at 5' can modulate the toxicity of 5'-O-sulfamoylnucleoside analogues. This conformationally-locked sulfamoyl adenosine scaffold presents some interesting possibilities for further drug design and lead optimization.
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| 17. |
- Dutta, Suman, et al.
(author)
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Carba-LNA modified siRNAs targeting HIV-1 TAR region downregulate HIV-1 replication successfully with enhanced potency
- 2011
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In: MedChemComm. - : Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC). - 2040-2503 .- 2040-2511. ; 2:3, s. 206-216
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- The conformationally-locked carbocyclic nucleosides carbaLNA ("jcLNA") (Gagnon et al., Biochemistry, 2010, 49, 10166; Srivastava et al., J. Am. Chem. Soc., 2007, 129, 8362; Xu et al., J. Org. Chem., 2009, 74, 6534; Zhou and Chattopadhyaya, J. Org. Chem., 2010, 75, 2341; Zhou et al., J. Org. Chem., 2009, 74, 118) are chemically engineered by fusing a carbocyclic ring at the C2' to C4' chiral centres in a stereospecific manner at the alpha-face of the pentose-sugar of the native nucleosides. The benefit of the chemically-modified oligonucleotides with the jcLNA scaffold has been shown to be their uniquely enhanced nuclease resistance in the blood serum as well as their improved RNase H recruitment capability to cleave the target RNA in the hybrid antisense-RNA duplex when used as an antisense agent, compared to those of locked nucleic acid (LNA) modified counterparts. Herein we report the relative inhibition efficiency of HIV-1 by jcLNA modified siRNAs targeting TAR region compared to those of the LNA counterparts, in that the former were found to exhibit improved silencing efficiency and displayed enhanced stability in human serum with negligible cytotoxicity compared to those of the latter. A single jcLNA substitution as the 3'-overhang of the guide strand displayed near native-like IC50 value (of 4.01 +/- 0.87 nM compared to the nearly two-fold higher IC50 value of 7.15 +/- 1.57 nM for LNA modified counterparts, and of the native siRNA of 1.84 +/- 0.16 nM) and significantly higher hp value for the stability in serum (11.9 h for jcLNA, 6.8 h for LNA and 3.0 h for native), thereby showing that the efficiency of jcLNA-modified-siRNAs is supported by stability without compromising the native-like efficiency and target RNA recognition and subsequent down-regulation. Amongst all the modified siRNAs so far used to target HIV-1 TAR region, the best IC50 value was obtained for the doubly-modified siRNA in which jcLNA substitution was introduced both at position 1 and 20 of the antisense strand (T-1 + T-20, i.e. jcLNA11 which showed IC50 value of 0.54 +/- 0.14 nM). The IC50 of this doubly-modified siRNA was more than three-fold lower than that of the native and two-fold lower than that of LNA modified counterpart, i.e. LNA12: IC50: 1.13 +/- 0.27 nM. Hence the strategy to chemically modify the native siRNAs by substitution with the jcLNA can be considered as a significant development, leading to both enhanced siRNA efficiency and serum stability over that of the native.
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| 18. |
- Dutta, Suman, et al.
(author)
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The R-diastereomer of 6 '-O-toluoyl-carba-LNA modification in the core region of siRNA leads to 24-times improved RNA silencing potency against the HIV-1 compared to its S-counterpart
- 2011
-
In: MedChemComm. - : Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC). - 2040-2503 .- 2040-2511. ; 2:11, s. 1110-1119
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- The modified siRNA with pure [6'(S)-O-(p-toluoyl)-7'(S)-methyl]-carba-LNA [6'(S)-O-toluoyl-jcLNA] at position T(13) displayed an IC(50) of 79.8 nM, which has been found to be nearly 24-times less potent as a HIV-1 RNAi silencing agent against TAR RNA than that of the corresponding pure [6'(R)-O-(ptoluoyl)-7'(S)-methyl]jcLNA [6'(R)-O-(p-toluoyl)-jcLNA] counterpart [IC(50) 3.3 nM]. The later [6'(R)-O-(p-toluoyl)-jcLNAl-modified siRNAs have been found to be nearly 2-fold more efficient as a silencing agent than the corresponding 6'-deoxy-jcLNA modified siRNA [IC(50) 8.1 nM], and also nearly 3-fold more effective as a silencing agent than that of LNA-modified siRNA [IC(50) 11.7 nM], thereby showing that the 6'-carbon center in the jcLNA-modified siRNA in the core region is relatively more exposed to the Ago protein in the RISC with a clear chirality preference for the siRNA cleavage reaction. It is noteworthy that the IC(50) of jcLNA-modified siRNAs are very comparable to that of the native siRNA [1.8 nM]. The jcLNA derivatized siRNAs, however, have a clear advantage of being, in general, considerably more stable in human serum. The main structural difference in duplexes of the antisense strand of the 6'(R or S)-O-(p-toluoyl)-jcLNA modified siRNA and target RNA duplex is found to be the spatial orientation of the 6'(R)-O-toluoyl group, which is exposed towards the edge of the duplex backbone, while the 6'(S) makes the minor groove relatively inaccessible for the Ago protein in the RISC. Clearly, any further C6'-modification in jcLNA-modified siRNAs with any hydrophobic group for tighter binding and cleavage or for cross-linking in the core region should preferably be done in the 6'(R)-stereochemistry.
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| 19. |
- Földesi, Andras, et al.
(author)
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Studies towards the large scale chemical synthesis of the precursors of ribonucleosides-3',4',5',5''-2H4 and -2',3',4',5',5''-2H5.
- 2003
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In: Nucleosides Nucleotides Nucleic Acids. - 1525-7770. ; 22:12, s. 2093-104
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Journal article (other academic/artistic)
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| 20. |
- Gagnon, Keith T., et al.
(author)
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Allele-Selective Inhibition of Mutant Huntingtin Expression with Antisense Oligonucleotides Targeting the Expanded CAG Repeat
- 2010
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In: Biochemistry. - : American Chemical Society (ACS). - 0006-2960 .- 1520-4995. ; 49:47, s. 10166-10178
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Huntington's disease (HD) is a currently incurable neurodegenerative disease caused by the expansion of a CAG trinucleotide repeat within the huntingtin (HTT) gene. Therapeutic approaches include selectively inhibiting the expression of the mutated HTT allele while conserving function of the normal allele. We have evaluated a series of antisense oligonucleotides (ASOs) targeted to the expanded CAG repeat within HTT mRNA for their ability to selectively inhibit expression of mutant HTT protein. Several ASOs incorporating a variety of modifications, including bridged nucleic acids and phosphorothioate internucleotide linkages, exhibited allele-selective silencing in patient-derived fibroblasts. Allele-selective ASOs did not affect the expression of other CAG repeat-containing genes and selectivity was observed in cell lines containing minimal CAG repeat lengths representative of most HD patients. Allele-selective ASOs left HTT mRNA intact and did not support ribonuclease H activity in vitro. We observed cooperative binding of multiple ASO molecules to CAG repeat-containing HTT mRNA transcripts in vitro. These results are consistent with a mechanism involving inhibition at the level of translation. ASOs targeted to the CAG repeat of HTT provide a starting point for the development of oligonucleotide-based therapeutics that can inhibit gene expression with allelic discrimination in patients with HD.
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| 21. |
- Honcharenko, Dmytro, et al.
(author)
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Comparison of the RNase H Cleavage Kinetics and Blood Serum Stability of the North-Conformationally Constrained and 2‘-Alkoxy Modified Oligonucleotides
- 2007
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In: Biochemistry. - : American Chemical Society (ACS). - 0006-2960 .- 1520-4995. ; 46:19, s. 5635-5646
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- The RNase H cleavage potential of the RNA strand basepaired with the complementary antisense oligonucleotides (AONs) containing North−East conformationally constrained 1‘,2‘-methylene-bridged (azetidine-T and oxetane-T) nucleosides, North-constrained 2‘,4‘-ethylene-bridged (aza-ENA-T) nucleoside, and 2‘-alkoxy modified nucleosides (2‘-O-Me-T and 2‘-O-MOE-T modifications) have been evaluated and compared under identical conditions. When compared to the native AON, the aza-ENA-T modified AON/RNA hybrid duplexes showed an increase of melting temperature (ΔTm = 2.5−4 °C per modification), depending on the positions of the modified residues. The azetidine-T modified AONs showed a drop of 4−5.5 °C per modification with respect to the native AON/RNA hybrid, whereas the isosequential oxetane-T modified counterpart, showed a drop of 5−6 °C per modification. The 2‘-O-Me-T and 2‘-O-MOE-T modifications, on the other hand, showed an increased of Tm by 0.5 °C per modification in their AON/RNA hybrids. All of the partially modified AON/RNA hybrid duplexes were found to be good substrates for the RNase H mediated cleavage. The Km and Vmax values obtained from the RNA concentration-dependent kinetics of RNase H promoted cleavage reaction for all AON/RNA duplexes with identical modification site were compared with those of the reference native AON/RNA hybrid duplex. The catalytic activities (Kcat) of RNase H were found to be greater (1.4−2.6-fold) for all modified AON/RNA hybrids compared to those for the native AON/RNA duplex. However, the RNase H binding affinity (1/Km) showed a decrease (1.7−8.3-fold) for all modified AON/RNA hybrids. This resulted in less effective (1.1−3.2-fold) enzyme activity (Kcat/Km) for all modified AON/RNA duplexes with respect to the native counterpart. A stretch of five to seven nucleotides in the RNA strand (from the site of modifications in the complementary modified AON strand) was found to be resistant to RNase H digestion (giving a footprint) in the modified AON/RNA duplex. Thus, (i) the AON modification with azetidine-T created a resistant region of five to six nucleotides, (ii) modification with 2‘-O-Me-T created a resistant stretch of six nucleotides, (iii) modification with aza-ENA-T created a resistant region of five to seven nucleotide residues, whereas (iv) modification with 2‘-O-MOE-T created a resistant stretch of seven nucleotide residues. This shows the variable effect of the microstructure perturbation in the modified AON/RNA heteroduplex depending upon the chemical nature as well as the site of modifications in the AON strand. On the other hand, the enhanced blood serum as well as the 3‘-exonuclease stability (using snake venom phosphodiesterase, SVPDE) showed the effect of the tight conformational constraint in the AON with aza-ENA-T modifications in that the 3‘-exonuclease preferentially hydrolyzed the 3‘-phosphodiester bond one nucleotide away (n + 1) from the modification site (n) compared to all other modified AONs, which were 3‘-exonuclease cleaved at the 3‘-phosphodiester of the modification site (n). The aza-ENA-T modification in the AONs made the 5‘-residual oligonucleotides (including the n + 1 nucleotide) highly resistant in the blood serum (remaining after 48 h) compared to the native AON (fully degraded in 2 h). On the other hand, the 5‘-residual oligonucleotides (including the n nucleotide) in azetidine-T, 2‘-O-Me-T, and 2‘-O-MOE-T modified AONs were more stable compared to that of the native counterpart but more easily degradable than that of aza-ENA-T containing AONs.
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| 22. |
- Honcharenko, Dmytro, 1978-
(author)
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Conformationally Constrained Nucleosides, Nucleotides and Oligonucleotides : Design, Synthesis and Properties
- 2008
-
Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic)abstract
- This thesis is based on six original research publications describing synthesis, structure and physicochemical and biochemical analysis of chemically modified oligonucleotides (ONs) in terms of their potential diagnostic and therapeutic applications. Synthesis of two types of bicyclic conformationally constrained nucleosides, North-East locked 1',2'-azetidine and North locked 2',4'-aza-ENA, is described. Study of the molecular structures and dynamics of bicyclic nucleosides showed that depending upon the type of fused system they fall into two distinct categories with their respective internal dynamics and type of sugar conformation. The physicochemical properties of the nucleobases in the conformationally constrained nucleosides found to be depended on the site and ring-size of the fused system. The incorporation of azetidine modified nucleotide units into 15mer ONs lowered the affinity toward the complementary RNA. However, they performed better than previously reported isosequential 1',2'-oxetane modified analogues. Whereas aza-ENA-T modification incorporated into ONs significantly enhanced affinity to the complementary RNA. To evaluate the antisense potential of azetidine-T and aza-ENA-T modified ONs, they were subjected to RNase H promoted cleavage as well as tested towards nucleolytic degradation. Kinetic experiments showed that modified ONs recruit RNase H, however with lower enzyme efficiency due to decreased enzyme-substrate binding affinity, but with enhanced turnover number. Both, azetidine-T and aza-ENA-T modified ONs demonstrated improved 3'-exonuclease stability in the presence of snake venom phosphodiesterase and human serum compared to the unmodified sequence. Oligodeoxynucleotides (ODNs) containing pyrene-functionalized azetidine-T (Aze-pyr X) and aza-ENA-T (Aza-ENA-pyr Y) modifications showed different fluorescence properties. The X modified ODNs hybridized to the complementary DNA and RNA showed variable increase in the fluorescence intensity depending upon the nearest-neighbor at the 3'-end to X modification (dA > dG > dT > dC) with high fluorescence quantum yield. However, the Y modified ODNs showed a sensible enhancement of the fluorescence intensity only with complementary DNA. Also, the X modified ODN showed decrease (~37-fold) in the fluorescence intensity upon duplex formation with RNA containing a G nucleobase mismatch opposite to the modification site, whereas a ~3-fold increase was observed for the Y modified probe.
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| 23. |
- Honcharenko, Dmytro, et al.
(author)
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Modulation of Pyrene Fluorescence in DNA Probes Depends upon the Nature of the Conformationally Restricted Nucleotide
- 2008
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In: Journal of Organic Chemistry. - : American Chemical Society (ACS). - 0022-3263 .- 1520-6904. ; 73:7, s. 2829-2842
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- The DNA probes (ODNs) containing a 2'-N-(pyren-1-yl)-group on the conformationally locked nucleosides [2'-N-(pyren-1-yl)carbonyl-azetidine thymidine, Aze-pyr (X), and 2'-N-(pyren-1-yl)carbonyl-aza-ENA thymidine, Aza-ENA-pyr (Y)], show that they can bind to complementary RNA more strongly than to the DNA. The Aze-pyr (X) containing ODNs with the complementary DNA and RNA duplexes showed an increase in the fluorescence intensity (measured at lambda em approximately 376 nm) depending upon the nearest neighbor at the 3'-end to X [dA ( approximately 12-20-fold) > dG ( approximately 9-20-fold) > dT ( approximately 2.5-20-fold) > dC ( approximately 6-13-fold)]. They give high fluorescence quantum yields (Phi F = 0.13-0.89) as compared to those of the single-stranded ODNs. The Aza-ENA-pyr (Y)-modified ODNs, on the other hand, showed an enhancement of the fluorescence intensity only with the complementary DNA (1.4-3.9-fold, Phi F = 0.16-0.47); a very small increase in fluorescence is also observed with the complementary RNA (1.1-1.7-fold, Phi F = 0.17-0.22), depending both upon the site of the Y modification introduced as well as on the chemical nature of the nucleobase adjacent to the modification site into the ODN. The fluorescence properties, thermal denaturation experiments, absorption, and circular dichroism (CD) studies with the X- and Y-modified ODNs in the form of matched homo- and heteroduplexes consistently suggested (i) that the orientation of the pyrene moiety is outside the helix of the nucleic acid duplexes containing a dT-d/rA base pair at the 3'-end of the modification site for both X and Y types of modifications, and (ii) that the microenvironment around the pyrene moiety in the ODN/DNA and ODN/RNA duplexes is dictated by the chemical nature of the conformational constraint in the sugar moiety, as well as by the nature of neighboring nucleobases. The pyrene fluorescence emission in both X and Y types of the conformationally restricted nucleotides is found to be sensitive to a mismatched base present in the target RNA: (i) The X-modified ODN showed a decrease ( approximately 37-fold) in the fluorescence intensity (measured at lambda em approximately 376 nm) upon duplex formation with RNA containing a G nucleobase mismatch (dT-rG pair instead of dT-rA) opposite to the modification site. (ii) In contrast, the Y-modified ODN in the heteroduplex resulted in a approximately 3-fold increase in the fluorescence intensity upon dT-rG mismatch, instead of matched dT-rA pair, in the RNA strand. Our data corroborate that the pyrene moiety is intercalated in the X-modified mismatched ODN/RNA (G mismatch) heteroduplex as compared to that of the Y-modified ODN/RNA (G mismatch) heteroduplex, in which it is located outside the helix.
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