Induction of DNA bending by bifunctional intercalating agents of the 7H-pyridocarbazole family.

The structures and binding energetics of selected complexes formed between the deoxynucleotides d(CpGpGpCpG).d(CpGpCpCpG), d(CpGpApTpCpG)2, d(GpCpGpCpCpG).d(CpGpGpCpGpC), and d(CpGpCpCpCpG)2 with the DNA bifunctional intercalating agent ditercalinium and three of its rigid linking chain derivatives have been investigated theoretically by means of a molecular mechanics approach that takes into account nucleic acid flexibility, ligand flexibility and solvent dielectric effects (R. Lavery, in: Unusual DNA structures, eds S. Harvey and R. Wells (Pergamon, New York, 1988) p. 189; R. Lavery, in: DNA bending and curvature, eds W.K. Olson et al. (Adenine Press, New York, 1988) p. 191). The piperidinium chains of the bis-intercalating ligands are always located in the major groove of DNA. For the energy-minimized complexes the ligand proceeds to bind following preferentially the 5'-pyrimidine-purine-3' alternating sequence, thus dictating the number of internal exclusion sites. The complexes with three exclusion sites will present (i) a bending of the structure towards the major groove, and (ii) a non-ideal distribution of unwinding angles; complexes with less than three exclusion sites will remain essentially linear. The absence of a bend does not preclude other types of local deformations of the base-pairs such as inclination, buckle and tip. The proposed structures of the d(CpGpApTpCpG)2 complexes are in agreement with NMR structural results. The possible relevance of these findings to a previously proposed mode of interaction for ditercalinium-like DNA ligands is discussed.