Peptide Nucleic Acids (PNAs) Containing Thymine Monomers Derived from Chiral Amino Acids: Hybridization and Solubility Properties of D-Lysine PNA

摘要

Peptide nucleic acids (PNAs) are DNA mimics containing an achiral. uncharged pseudopeptide backbone. PNAs bind strongly and sequence-specifically to both single-stranded DNA and RNA as well as to double-stranded DNA Furthermore, PNAs are both chemically and biologically stable, These properties make PNAs attractive leads for the development of gene therapeutics and biomolecular tools. The original PNA backbone consists of N-(2-aminoethyl)glycine units: the nucleobases are attached to the glycine nitrogens through methylene carbonyl linkers (Scheme 1). A number of modified PNAs have been prepared Extension of the PNA backbone by the insertion of methylene units proved to be deleterious to the DNA-mimicking properties.