Formation and recognition of G-quadruplex structure in proximal promoter of vascular endothelial growth factor gene by ESI mass spectrometry

摘要

We have had a long standing interest in the exploration of formation, property, recognition and structural conversion of the G-quadruplex in promoters of oncogenes. Recently, it found that human vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) gene plays an important role in cancer cell survival, growth and metastasis. The VEGF proximal promoter region contains a G-rich sequence, which is binding sites for transcription factor Sp1 and Egr-1, it is essential for VEGF expression activity. Our research focused on the formation of G-quadruplex structure from this G-rich sequence, dGGGGCGGGCCGGGGGCGGGG (-85 to -66 bp relative to the initiation of transcription); and six small molecules were used to explore the specific recognition function for the G-quadruplex DNA by ESI mass spectrometry.