Visible Light-Induced Templated Metathesis of Peptide-Nucleic Acid Conjugates with a Diselenide Bridge

The use of template molecules as chemical scaffolds that significantly influence the course of the reaction has recently been intensively studied. Peptide nucleic acids (PNA) are molecules that mimic natural nucleic acids. They are a promising matrix in such reactions because they possess high affinity and specificity in their interactions. The manner of PNA interaction is predictable based on sequence complementarity. Recently, we report the visible light-induced metathesis reaction in peptides containing a diselenide bond. Herein, we present an efficient and straightforward method of the visible light-driven diselenide-based metathesis of peptide-nucleic acid conjugates. Compared to a similar photochemical transformation in peptides, a significant increase in the metathesis efficiency was obtained due to the template effect.