Sequence-specific 2'5'-oligonucleotides in the molecular dissection of the biological activity of 2-5A

Recently developed chemical synthetic methodology for facile preparation of sequence-specific 2'5'-oligonucleotides has allowed more exacting questions to be asked regarding the biological role of each of the nucleotide residues of 2-5A. We have found, employing analogs in which each adenosine residue has been sequentially replaced by adenosine (viz, ppp5'I2'p5'A2'p5'I, ppp5'A2'p5'I2'p5'A, ppp5'A2'p5'A2'p5'I) that the N6 amino group of the first (or 5'-terminal) adenosine residue of 2-5A trimer is critical in RNase L binding whereas the N6 amino moiety of the third (or 2'-terminal) adenosine residue of 2-5A is crucial for the activation of RNase L. The second or middle adenosine unit of 2-5A does not seem to be critical for either binding or activation. Similarly, in studies on sequence-specific tubercidin analogs of 2-5A, activation of but not binding to mouse RNase L was dependent on the presence of the purine N7 atoms of the first and third adenosine residues of 2-5A, but, as with the N6 amino group, the N7 moiety of the second adenosine residue of 2-5A was not essential for either binding to or activation of the 2-5A-dependent endonuclease. Finally, sequence-specific purine 8-bromination provided analogs of dramatically varying biological properties, and provided a 5'-monophosphate, p5'A2'p5'(br8A)2'p5'(br8A), which possessed 8% of the translational inhibitory action of 2-5A itself. This latter result may represent an important impetus toward obtaining a 2-5A derivative with biological activity in an intact cell.