Synthesis of distamycin A polyamides targeting G-quadruplex DNA

Michael J B Moore1, Francisco Cuenca, Mark Searcey

  • 1Cancer Research UK Biomolecular Structure Group, The School of Pharmacy, University of London, 29-39 Brunswick Square, London, UK WC1N 1AX.

Related Concept Videos

Inhibitors of Bacterial DNA Synthesis01:28

Inhibitors of Bacterial DNA Synthesis

Bacterial pathogens depend on precise and efficient DNA replication to sustain infection. Two type II topoisomerases—DNA gyrase and topoisomerase IV—are critical to this process, as they resolve DNA supercoiling and unlink chromosomes during replication. Fluoroquinolones, synthetic derivatives of quinolones, exploit this mechanism by stabilizing the transient DNA–enzyme cleavage complex, preventing strand religation, and causing lethal double-strand breaks. These antibiotics are selectively...
Restarting Stalled Replication Forks02:37

Restarting Stalled Replication Forks

DNA replication is initiated at sites containing predefined DNA sequences known as origins of replication. DNA is unwound at these sites by the minichromosome maintenance (MCM) helicase and other factors such as Cdc45 and the associated GINS complex.The unwound single strands are protected by replication protein A (RPA) until DNA polymerase starts synthesizing DNA at the 5’ end of the strand in the same direction as the replication fork. To prevent the replication fork from falling apart, a...
Maxam-Gilbert Sequencing01:05

Maxam-Gilbert Sequencing

In the same year as the discovery of the Sanger sequencing method, another group of scientists, Allan Maxam and Walter Gilbert, demonstrated their chemical-cleavage method for DNA sequencing. The Maxam-Gilbert method relies on using different chemicals that can cleave the DNA sequence at specific sites, the separation of resulting DNA fragments of variable size using electrophoresis, and deciphering the DNA sequence from the resulting gel bands.
Challenges of the Maxam-Gilbert Method
The...