RESEARCH ARTICLE
Identification of G-Quadruplex Inducers Usinga Simple, Inexpensiveand Rapid High Throughput Assay, and TheirInhibition of Human Telomerase
Maria Florencia Sassano, Alexander P Schlesinger , Michael B Jarstfer*
Article Information
Identifiers and Pagination:
Year: 2012Volume: 6
First Page: 20
Last Page: 28
Publisher ID: TOMCJ-6-20
DOI: 10.2174/1874104501206010020
Article History:
Received Date: 16/5/2012Revision Received Date: 17/7/2012
Acceptance Date: 18/7/2012
Electronic publication date: 19/10/2012
Collection year: 2012
open-access license: This is an open access article licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/) which permits unrestricted, non-commercial use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the work is properly cited.
Abstract
Telomeres are protein and DNA complexes located atchromosome ends. Telomeric DNA is composed of a double stranded region of repetitive DNA followed by single-stranded 3' extension of aG-rich sequence. Single-stranded G-rich sequencescan fold into G-quadruplex structures,and molecules that stabilize G-quadruplexes are known to inhibit the enzyme telomerase and disrupt telomere maintenance. Because telomere maintenance is required for proliferation of cancer cells, G-quadruplex stabilizers have become attractive prospects for anticancer drug discovery.However, telomere-targeting G-quadruplex ligands have yet to enter the clinic owing in part to poor pharmacokinetics and target selectivity. Increasing the pharmacophore diversity of G-quadruplex and specifically telomeric-DNA targeting agents should assist in overcoming these shortcomings. In this work, we report the identification and validation ofligands that bind telomeric DNA and induce G-quadruplex formationusing the NCI Diversity Set I, providing validation of anextremely simple, rapid and high-throughput screen using FRET technology. Hits from the screen were validated by examining telomerase inhibition and G-quadruplex inductionusing CD spectroscopy and DNA polymerase stop assays. We show that two known DNA binding molecules, ellipticine derivativeNSC 176327 (apyridocarbazole) and NSC 305831 (an antiparasitic hetero-cyclediamidine referred to as furamidine and DB75),are selective induceG-quadruplex formation in the human telomeric sequence and bind telomeric DNA quadruplexes in the absence of stabilizing monovalent cations with molar ratios(molecule: DNA)of 4:1and 1.5:1, respectively.
