Dual recognition of the human telomeric G-quadruplex by a neomycin-anthraquinone conjugate

The authors report the recognition of a G-quadruplex formed by four repeat human telomeric DNA with aminosugar intercalator conjugates. The recognition of the G-quadruplex through dual binding mode ligands significantly increased the affinity of ligands for the G-quadruplex. One such example is a neomycin-anthraquinone conjugate (2) which exhibited nanomolar affinity for the quadruplex, and the affinity of (2) is nearly 1000 fold higher for the human telomeric G-quadruplex DNA than its constituent units, neomycin and anthraquinone.