Downloaded from rnajournal.cshlp.org on October 8, 2021 - Published by Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press Hnedzko et al. Sequence-Selective Recognition of Double-Stranded RNA and Enhanced Cellular Uptake of Cationic Nucleobase and Backbone- Modified Peptide Nucleic Acids Dziyana Hnedzko1,*, Dennis W. McGee,2 Yannis A. Karamitas1 and Eriks Rozners1,* Departments of 1 Chemistry and 2 Biological Sciences, Binghamton University, The State University of New York, Binghamton, New York 13902, United States. * To whom correspondence should be addressed. Tel: +1-607-777-2441; Fax: +1-607-777- 4478; Email:
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[email protected] Running Tittle: RNA recognition and cellular uptake of PNA 1 Downloaded from rnajournal.cshlp.org on October 8, 2021 - Published by Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press Hnedzko et al. ABSTRACT Sequence-selective recognition of complex RNAs in live cells could find broad applications in biology, biomedical research and biotechnology. However, specific recognition of structured RNA is challenging and generally applicable and effective methods are lacking. Recently, we found that peptide nucleic acids (PNAs) were unusually well suited ligands for recognition of double-stranded RNAs. Herein, we report that 2-aminopyridine (M) modified PNAs and their conjugates with lysine and arginine tripeptides form strong (Ka = 9.4 to 17 × 107 M-1) and sequence-selective triple helices with RNA hairpins at physiological pH and salt concentration. The affinity of PNA-peptide conjugates for the matched RNA hairpins was unusually high compared to the much lower affinity for DNA hairpins of the same 7 -1 sequence (Ka = 0.05 to 0.11 × 10 M ). The binding of double-stranded RNA by M-modified 4 -1 -1 PNA-peptide conjugates was a relatively fast process (kon = 2.9 × 10 M s ) compared to 3 -1 -1 the notoriously slow triple helix formation by oligodeoxynucleotides (kon ~ 10 M s ).