School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou 510006, China.
Molecules. 2018 Feb 23;23(2):493. doi: 10.3390/molecules23020493.
G-quadruplexes are four-stranded nucleic acid secondary structures that are formed in guanine-rich sequences. G-quadruplexes are widely distributed in functional regions of the human genome and transcriptome, such as human telomeres, oncogene promoter regions, replication initiation sites, and untranslated regions. Many G-quadruplex-forming sequences are found to be associated with cancer, and thus, these non-canonical nucleic acid structures are considered to be attractive molecular targets for cancer therapeutics with novel mechanisms of action. In this mini review, we summarize recent advances made by our lab in the study of G-quadruplex-targeted natural alkaloids and their derivatives toward the development of potential anticancer agents.
四链体是由富含鸟嘌呤的序列形成的四级核酸二级结构。四链体广泛分布于人类基因组和转录组的功能区域，如人类端粒、癌基因启动子区域、复制起始点和非翻译区。许多形成四链体的序列与癌症有关，因此，这些非 canonical 核酸结构被认为是具有新型作用机制的癌症治疗的有吸引力的分子靶标。在这篇迷你综述中，我们总结了我们实验室在研究靶向四链体的天然生物碱及其衍生物以开发潜在的抗癌药物方面的最新进展。
