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Updated: Jul 22, 2026

Using In Vitro and In-cell SHAPE to Investigate Small Molecule Induced Pre-mRNA Structural Changes
Published on: January 30, 2019
Efficient new ribozyme mimics: direct mapping of molecular design principles from small molecules to macromolecular,
W C Putnam1, A T Daniher, B N Trawick
1Department of Chemistry, Washington University, St Louis, MO 63130-4899, USA.
Abstract:
Dramatic improvements in ribozyme mimics have been achieved by employing the principles of small molecule catalysis to the design of macromolecular, biomimetic reagents. Ribozyme mimics derived from the ligand 2,9-dimethylphenanthroline (neocuproine) show at least 30-fold improvements in efficiency at sequence-specific RNA cleavage when compared with analogous o-phenanthroline- and terpyridine-derived reagents. The suppression of hydroxide-bridged dimers and the greater activation of coordinated water by Cu(II) neocuproine (compared with the o-phenanthroline and terpyridine complexes) better allow Cu(II) to reach its catalytic potential as a biomimetic RNA cleavage agent. This work demonstrates the direct mapping of molecular design principles from small-molecule cleavage to macromolecular cleavage events, generating enhanced biomimetic, sequence-specific RNA cleavage agents.
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