Four-stranded nucleic acids: structure, function and targeting of G-quadruplexes
2008; Royal Society of Chemistry; Volume: 37; Issue: 7 Linguagem: Inglês
10.1039/b702491f
ISSN1460-4744
Autores Tópico(s)RNA Interference and Gene Delivery
ResumoThere are many structures that can be adopted by nucleic acids other than the famous Watson–Crick duplex form. This tutorial review describes the guanine rich G-quadruplex structure, highlighting the chemical interactions governing its formation, and the topological variants that exist. The methods that are used to study G-quadruplex structures are described, with examples of the information that may be derived from these different methods. Next, the proposed biological functions of G-quadruplexes are discussed, highlighting especially their presence in telomeric regions and gene promoters. G-quadruplex structures are the subject of considerable interest for the development of small-molecule ligands, and are also the targets of a wide variety of natural proteins.
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