| HOME | HELP | FEEDBACK | SUBSCRIPTIONS | ARCHIVE | SEARCH | TABLE OF CONTENTS |
|
|
|
|||||||
|
|||||||||
Department of Physical Chemistry, Chalmers University of Technology, S 412 96, Gothenburg, Sweden
1Correspondence: Department of Physical Chemistry, Chalmers University of Technology, S 412 96, Gothenburg, Sweden. E-mail: norden@phc.chalmers.se; ray{at}phc.chalmers.se
Synthetic molecules that can bind with high sequence specificity to a chosen target in a gene sequence are of major interest in medicinal and biotechnological contexts. They show promise for the development of gene therapeutic agents, diagnostic devices for genetic analysis, and as molecular tools for nucleic acid manipulations. Peptide nucleic acid (PNA) is a nucleic acid analog in which the sugar phosphate backbone of natural nucleic acid has been replaced by a synthetic peptide backbone usually formed from N-(2-amino-ethyl)-glycine units, resulting in an achiral and uncharged mimic. It is chemically stable and resistant to hydrolytic (enzymatic) cleavage and thus not expected to be degraded inside a living cell. PNA is capable of sequence-specific recognition of DNA and RNA obeying the Watson-Crick hydrogen bonding scheme, and the hybrid complexes exhibit extraordinary thermal stability and unique ionic strength effects. It may also recognize duplex homopurine sequences of DNA to which it binds by strand invasion, forming a stable PNA-DNA–PNA triplex with a looped-out DNA strand. Since its discovery, PNA has attracted major attention at the interface of chemistry and biology because of its interesting chemical, physical, and biological properties and its potential to act as an active component for diagnostic as well as pharmaceutical applications. In vitro studies indicate that PNA could inhibit both transcription and translation of genes to which it has been targeted, which holds promise for its use for antigene and antisense therapy. However, as with other high molecular mass drugs, the delivery of PNA, involving passage through the cell membrane, appears to be a general problem.—Ray, A., Nordén, B. Peptide nucleic acid (PNA): its medical and biotechnical applications and promise for the future.
Key Words: DNA • PNA-DNA hybridization • antigene • antisense • gene therapy • nucleic acid biosensor
This article has been cited by other articles:
|
|
 |
|
  B. Gilje, R. Heikkila, S. Oltedal, K. Tjensvoll, and O. Nordgard High-Fidelity DNA Polymerase Enhances the Sensitivity of a Peptide Nucleic Acid Clamp PCR Assay for K-ras Mutations J. Mol. Diagn., July 1, 2008; 10(4): 325 - 331. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|
|
|
 |
|
 T. Ishizuka, J. Yoshida, Y. Yamamoto, J. Sumaoka, T. Tedeschi, R. Corradini, S. Sforza, and M. Komiyama Chiral introduction of positive charges to PNA for double-duplex invasion to versatile sequences Nucleic Acids Res., March 1, 2008; 36(5): 1464 - 1471. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|
|
|
 |
|
 S. A. Wilks and C. W. Keevil Targeting Species-Specific Low-Affinity 16S rRNA Binding Sites by Using Peptide Nucleic Acids for Detection of Legionellae in Biofilms Appl. Envir. Microbiol., August 1, 2006; 72(8): 5453 - 5462. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|
|
|
 |
|
 Y. K. Reshetnyak, O. A. Andreev, U. Lehnert, and D. M. Engelman Translocation of molecules into cells by pH-dependent insertion of a transmembrane helix PNAS, April 25, 2006; 103(17): 6460 - 6465. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|
|
|
 |
|
 A. Sen and P. E. Nielsen Unique Properties of Purine/Pyrimidine Asymmetric PNA{middle dot}DNA Duplexes: Differential Stabilization of PNA{middle dot}DNA Duplexes by Purines in the PNA Strand Biophys. J., February 15, 2006; 90(4): 1329 - 1337. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|
|
|
|
|
J. Zielinski, K. Kilk, T. Peritz, T. Kannanayakal, K. Y. Miyashiro, E. Eiriksdottir, J. Jochems, U. Langel, and J. Eberwine In vivo identification of ribonucleoprotein-RNA interactions PNAS, January 31, 2006; 103(5): 1557 - 1562. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|
|
|
|
|
H. Fang, X. Yue, X. Li, and J.-S. Taylor Identification and characterization of high affinity antisense PNAs for the human unr (upstream of N-ras) mRNA which is uniquely overexpressed in MCF-7 breast cancer cells Nucleic Acids Res., November 27, 2005; 33(21): 6700 - 6711. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|
|
|
|
|
I. V. Smolina, V. V. Demidov, V. A. Soldatenkov, S. G. Chasovskikh, and M. D. Frank-Kamenetskii End invasion of peptide nucleic acids (PNAs) with mixed-base composition into linear DNA duplexes Nucleic Acids Res., October 4, 2005; 33(17): e146 - e146. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|
|
|
|
|
A. Abibi, E. Protozanova, V. V. Demidov, and M. D. Frank-Kamenetskii Specific versus Nonspecific Binding of Cationic PNAs to Duplex DNA Biophys. J., May 1, 2004; 86(5): 3070 - 3078. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|
|
|
|
|
T. G. Uil, H. J. Haisma, and M. G. Rots Therapeutic modulation of endogenous gene function by agents with designed DNA-sequence specificities Nucleic Acids Res., November 1, 2003; 31(21): 6064 - 6078. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|
|
|
|
|
V. Menchise, G. De Simone, T. Tedeschi, R. Corradini, S. Sforza, R. Marchelli, D. Capasso, M. Saviano, and C. Pedone Insights into peptide nucleic acid (PNA) structural features: The crystal structure of a D-lysine-based chiral PNA-DNA duplex PNAS, October 14, 2003; 100(21): 12021 - 12026. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|
|
|
|
|
O. Brandt, J. Feldner, A. Stephan, M. Schroder, M. Schnolzer, H. F. Arlinghaus, J. D. Hoheisel, and A. Jacob PNA microarrays for hybridisation of unlabelled DNA samples Nucleic Acids Res., October 1, 2003; 31(19): e119 - e119. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|
|
|
|
|
E. Protozanova, V. V. Demidov, P. E. Nielsen, and M. D. Frank-Kamenetskii Pseudocomplementary PNAs as selective modifiers of protein activity on duplex DNA: the case of type IIs restriction enzymes Nucleic Acids Res., July 15, 2003; 31(14): 3929 - 3935. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|
|
|
|
|
V. V. Demidov, E. Protozanova, K. I. Izvolsky, C. Price, P. E. Nielsen, and M. D. Frank-Kamenetskii Kinetics and mechanism of the DNA double helix invasion by pseudocomplementary peptide nucleic acids PNAS, April 30, 2002; 99(9): 5953 - 5958. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|
|
|
|
|
E. Grabczyk and K. Usdin Alleviating transcript insufficiency caused by Friedreich's ataxia triplet repeats Nucleic Acids Res., December 15, 2000; 28(24): 4930 - 4937. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|
|
|
|
|
V. V. Demidov, E. Protozanova, K. I. Izvolsky, C. Price, P. E. Nielsen, and M. D. Frank-Kamenetskii Kinetics and mechanism of the DNA double helix invasion by pseudocomplementary peptide nucleic acids PNAS, April 30, 2002; 99(9): 5953 - 5958. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|
| HOME | HELP | FEEDBACK | SUBSCRIPTIONS | ARCHIVE | SEARCH | TABLE OF CONTENTS |
