Stability ofHoogsteen-Type Triplexes – Electrostatic Attraction between Duplex Backbone and Triplex-Forming Oligonucleotide (TFO) Using an Intercalating Conjugate

Syntheses are described for two novel twisted intercalating nucleic acid (TINA) monomers where the intercalator comprises a benzene ring linked to a naphthalimide moiety via an ethynediyl bridge. The intercalators Y and Z have a 2-(dimethylamino)ethyl and a methyl residue on the naphthalimide moiety, respectively. When used as triplex-forming oligonucleotides (TFOs), the novel naphthalimide TINAs show extraordinary high thermal stability in Hoogsteen-type triplexes and duplexes with high discrimination of mismatch strands. DNA Strands containing the intercalator Y show higher thermal triplex stability than DNA strands containing the intercalator Z. This observation can be explained by the ionic interaction of the protonated dimethylamino group under physiological conditions, targeting the negatively charged phosphate backbone of the duplex. This interaction leads to an extra binding mode between the TFO and the duplex, in agreement with molecular-modeling studies. We believe that this is the first example of an intercalator linking the TFO to the phosphate backbone of the duplex by an ionic interaction, which is a promising tool to achieve a higher triplex stability.