DNA G-QUADRUPLEXES: FROM NUCLEIC ACID APTAMERS TO HIGHLY ORDERED SUPRAMOLECULAR STRUCTURES

Il 22/03/2013 ore 14.30 - 15.30

Aula Seminari IBP, 3° piano, Istituto di Biochimica delle Proteine, CNR
Via P. Castellino 111
80131 Napoli

Prof. Gennaro Piccialli of Dipartimento di Chimica delle Sostanze Naturali, Università di Napoli Federico II will give a seminar on Quadruple helices, or G-quadruplexes. These are DNA secondary structures found in guanine rich oligonucleotide sequences, having a natural propensity to self-associate in coplanar arrays of four guanines, stabilized by Hoogsteen hydrogen bonding. The scientific interest towards these particular DNA structures is mainly due to the presence of guanine rich domains, potentially able to form G-quadruplexes, in important regions of the human genome, as gene promoters and telomeres, and to the fact that the G-quadruplexes can constitute the scaffold of aptamers. Aptamers are short DNA or RNA fragments capable to bind with high affinity specific proteins, as for example thrombin or HIV-proteins. On these grounds, aptamers-based synthetic oligonucleotides can represent a new class of pharmacologically interesting molecules, characterized by a high selectivity of action. Furthermore, the G-quadruplexes can have a potential use in nanotechnology and self assembled supramolecular structures. As a matter of fact, the overall quadruplex scaffold can exhibit several morphologies through intramolecular or intermolecular organization of G-rich oligonucleotide strands, which can form higher-order assemblies by multimerization between G-quadruplex units.

New G-quadruplex aptamers having anti-HIV properties and studies on the multimerization of G-quadruplex scaffold will be presented.

Organizzato da:
Istituto di Biochimica delle Proteine

Referente organizzativo:
Daniela Corda
CNR - Istituto di biochimica delle proteine
d.corda@ibp.cnr.it
081/6132536

Modalità di accesso: ingresso libero