Pyrene-modified PNAs: Stacking interactions and selective excimer emission in PNA₂DNA triplexes

• Alex Manicardi,
• Lucia Guidi,
• Alice Ghidini and
• Roberto Corradini

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2014, 10, 1495–1503, doi:10.3762/bjoc.10.154

• positioning of the pyrene units along the chain. An increase in triplex stability and a very high mismatch-selectivity, derived from combined stacking and base-pairing interactions, were found for PNA2, bearing two distant pyrene units. Keywords: modified nucleobase; nucleic acids; PNA; pyrene excimer; SNP

• recognition; triplex stabilization; Introduction Peptide nucleic acid (PNA) probes are very selective in the recognition of DNA and have been used in a large variety of diagnostic methods, easily allowing the detection of point mutations at very low concentrations [1][2][3]. Poly-pyrimidine PNA can form very