Studies of interaction between safranine T and double helix DNA by spectral methods

In this paper, the DNA affinity properties of Safranine T (ST), which features a phenazinyl group, were studied. The studies indicated that ST could intercalate into the stack base pairs of DNA. Intrinsic binding constants obtained by different spectral methods were consistent within experimental errors. They were of the order of 10(4) M-1 in DNA base pairs, and the binding site size was about 7 in DNA base pairs. Studies of fluorescence quenching by anionic quenchers and melting temperature of DNA all supported the intercalative binding of ST with DNA. The experiments also showed that electrostatic binding played an important role in the interaction of ST with DNA. This research offers a new intercalation functional group to DNA-targeted drug design.