Weakly charged cationic nanoparticles induce DNA bending and strand separation.

Authors :: Railsback JG
Singh A
Pearce RC
McKnight TE
Collazo R
Sitar Z
Yingling YG
Melechko AV
Source :: Advanced materials (Deerfield Beach, Fla.) [Adv Mater] 2012 Aug 16; Vol. 24 (31), pp. 4261-5. Date of Electronic Publication: 2012 Jun 19.
Publication Year :: 2012
Abstract: Weakly charged cationic nanoparticles cause structural changes including local denaturing and compaction to DNA under mild conditions. The charged ligands bind to the phosphate backbone of DNA and the uncharged ligands penetrate the helix and disrupt base pairing. Mobility shifts in electrophoresis, molecular dynamics, and UV-vis spectrophotometry give clues to the details of the interactions.<br /> (Copyright © 2012 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.)