Furan-modified PNA probes for covalent targeting and ligation of nucleic acids

While natural oligonucleotides (ONs) are increasingly used as therapeutic and diagnostic tools, they still face certain challenges such as low resistance to enzymatic degradation, potential immunogenicity, and delivery issues, which can limit their applications. Peptide Nucleic Acids (PNAs) are promising alternatives due to their high affinity for DNA and RNA, the high resistance to enzymatic degradation, and the easy introduction of a wide range of potential modifications. Chemical modifications that enable the covalent targeting of specific DNA and RNA strands offer additional advantages, including enhanced potency. The current study focuses on the utilization of furan-PNAs as pro-reactive probe systems and their applications to DNA and RNA targeting. Specifically, in this methodological paper, we provide practical insights into the design, synthesis, and application of furan-containing PNA probes for achieving efficient PNA-DNA and PNA-RNA interstrand crosslinking (ICL), as well as ON-templated PNA-PNA ligation systems. Furthermore, we discuss the applications of these probes in targeting DNA secondary structures, such as G-quadruplexes and i-motifs, target pull-down assays, and on-surface detection.