1. Investigation of the Factors That Dictate the Preferred Orientation of Lexitropsins in the Minor Groove of DNA
- Author
-
Rajeev Ahuja, Yogendra Kumar Mishra, Hasan Alniss, John Parkinson, Mohammad H. Semreen, Pritam Kumar Panda, and Ini-Isabée Witzel
- Subjects
Models, Molecular ,Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy ,Stereochemistry ,Lexitropsin ,macromolecular substances ,Molecular Dynamics Simulation ,Ligands ,Antiparallel (biochemistry) ,01 natural sciences ,03 medical and health sciences ,chemistry.chemical_compound ,Drug Discovery ,Biological sciences ,030304 developmental biology ,0303 health sciences ,Binding Sites ,Hydrogen Bonding ,Netropsin ,DNA ,Small molecule ,0104 chemical sciences ,Molecular Weight ,Thiazoles ,010404 medicinal & biomolecular chemistry ,chemistry ,Nucleic Acid Conformation ,Molecular Medicine ,Dimerization ,Minor groove - Abstract
Lexitropsins are small molecules that bind to the minor groove of DNA as antiparallel dimers in a specific orientation. These molecules have shown therapeutic potential in the treatment of several diseases; however, the development of these molecules to target particular genes requires revealing the factors that dictate their preferred orientation in the minor grooves, which to date have not been investigated. In this study, a distinct structure (thzC) was carefully designed as an analog of a well-characterized lexitropsin (thzA) to reveal the factors that dictate the preferred binding orientation. Comparative evaluations of the biophysical and molecular modeling results of both compounds showed that the position of the dimethylaminopropyl group and the orientation of the amide links of the ligand with respect to the 5'-3'-ends; dictate the preferred orientation of lexitropsins in the minor grooves. These findings could be useful in the design of novel lexitropsins to selectively target specific genes.
- Published
- 2019
- Full Text
- View/download PDF