Antiproliferative activity of G-quartet-containing oligonucleotides generated by a novel single-stranded DNA...

Recently, a novel single-stranded DNA (ssDNA) expression system that can generate intracellularly ssDNA or oligodeoxynucleotide (ODN) molecules has been developed. Previous studies showed that this ssDNA expression system is capable of generating DNA enzyme ODNs and triplex-forming oligodeoxynucleotides (TFOs) in cells. In this study, we constructed an ssDNA expression vector that can generate a G-quartet-containing ODNs, GRO29A, in cells. Similar to synthetic ODNs, vector-generated GRO29As were shown to have significant antiproliferative activities in a number of cancer cell lines. These results further demonstrate the potential application of ssDNA expression system in gene target validation and drug development.