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Updated: Jun 21, 2026

Denaturing Urea Polyacrylamide Gel Electrophoresis (Urea PAGE)
Published on: October 29, 2009
Hydrolytic cleavage of DNA by urea-bridged macrocyclic polyamines
Jing Li1, Ji Zhang, Qiao-Sen Lu
1Department of Chemistry, Key Laboratory of Green Chemistry and Technology (Ministry of Education), Sichuan University, Chengdu 610064, PR China.
Abstract:
Novel bis-cyclen derivative A with urea, mono-cyclen derivative B with urea and amino acid urea C were synthesized as DNA cleavage agents. The structures of these new compounds were identified by MS and (1)H NMR spectroscopy. The catalytic activities on DNA cleavage of these compounds were subsequently studied, and results show that A is a much better catalyst in DNA cleavage process than that of B and C. The effects of reaction time and catalyst concentration were also investigated. The results indicate that A can catalyze the cleavage of supercoiled DNA (pUC 19 plasmid DNA) to nicked DNA under physiological conditions with high yields (nearly 100%) via a hydrolytic mechanism.
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