Structural Studies on Porphyrin-PNA Conjugates in Parallel PNA:PNA Duplexes: Effect of Stacking Interactions on Helicity

Synthesis and Applications of Porphyrin-Biomacromolecule Conjugates

With potential applications in materials and especially in light-responsive biomedicine that targets cancer tissue selectively, much research has focused on developing covalent conjugation techniques to tether porphyrinoid units to various biomacromolecules. This review details the key synthetic approaches that have been employed in the recent decades to conjugate porphyrinoids with oligonucleotides and peptides/proteins. In addition, we provide succinct discussions on the subsequent applications of such hybrid systems and also give a brief overview of the rapidly progressing field of porphyrin-antibody conjugates. Since nucleic acid and peptide systems vary in structure, connectivity, functional group availability and placement, as well as stability and solubility, tailored synthetic approaches are needed for conjugating to each of these biomacromolecule types. In terms of tethering to ONs, porphyrins are typically attached by employing bioorthogonal chemistry (e.g., using phosphoramidites) that drive solid-phase ON synthesis or by conducting post-synthesis modifications and subsequent reactions (such as amide couplings, hydrazide-carbonyl reactions, and click chemistry). In contrast, peptides and proteins are typically conjugated to porphyrinoids using their native functional groups, especially the thiol and amine side chains. However, bioorthogonal reactions (e.g., Staudinger ligations, and copper or strain promoted alkyne-azide cycloadditions) that utilize de novo introduced functional groups onto peptides/proteins have seen vigorous development, especially for site-specific peptide-porphyrin tethering. While the ON-porphyrin conjugates have largely been explored for programmed nanostructure self-assembly and artificial light-harvesting applications, there are some reports of ON-porphyrin systems targeting clinically translational applications (e.g., antimicrobial biomaterials and site-specific nucleic acid cleavage). Conjugates of porphyrins with proteinaceous moieties, on the other hand, have been predominantly used for therapeutic and diagnostic applications (especially in photodynamic therapy, photodynamic antimicrobial chemotherapy, and photothermal therapy). The advancement of the field of porphyrinoid-bioconjugation chemistry from basic academic research to more clinically targeted applications require continuous fine-tuning in terms of synthetic strategies and hence there will continue to be much exciting work on porphyrinoid-biomacromolecule conjugation.

Control of porphyrin interactions via structural changes of a peptoid scaffold

A template to control porphyrin interactions is constructed by displaying porphyrins at defined positions on a helical peptoid.

Antisense Oligonucleotides Internally Labeled with Peptides Show Improved Target Recognition and Stability to Enzymatic Degradation

Specific target binding and stability in diverse biological media is of crucial importance for applications of synthetic oligonucleotides as diagnostic and therapeutic tools. So far, these issues have been addressed by chemical modification of oligonucleotides and by conjugation with a peptide, most often at the terminal position of the oligonucleotide. Herein, we for the first time systematically investigate the influence of internally attached short peptides on the properties of antisense oligonucleotides. We report the synthesis and internal double labeling of 21-mer oligonucleotides that target the BRAF V600E oncogene, with a library of rationally designed peptides employing CuAAC "click" chemistry. The peptide sequence has an influence on the specificity and affinity of target DNA/RNA binding. We also investigated the impact of locked nucleic acids (LNAs) on the latter. Lysine residues improve binding of POCs to target DNA and RNA, whereas the distance to lysine correlates exclusively with a decrease in binding of mismatched RNA targets. Glycine and tyrosine residues affect target binding as well. Importantly, the resistance of POCs to enzymatic degradation is dramatically improved by the internal attachment of peptides but not by LNA alone. Independently of the peptide sequence, the conjugates are stable for up to 24 h in 90% human serum and duplexes of POCs with complementary DNA for up to 160 h in 90% human serum. Such excellent stability has not been previously reported for DNA and makes internally labeled POCs an exciting object of study, i.e., showing high target specificity and simultaneous stability in biological media.