Department of Chemistry and Applied Biosciences, Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences, ETH Zurich, Switzerland.
Newcastle Cancer Centre, Northern Institute for Cancer Research, Medical School, Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK.
FEBS Lett. 2019 Aug;593(16):2083-2102. doi: 10.1002/1873-3468.13547. Epub 2019 Jul 30.
G-quadruplexes are secondary structures formed in G-rich sequences in DNA and RNA. Considerable research over the past three decades has led to in-depth insight into these unusual structures in DNA. Since the more recent exploration into RNA G-quadruplexes, such structures have demonstrated their in cellulo existence, function and roles in pathology. In comparison to Watson-Crick-based secondary structures, most G-quadruplexes display highly redundant structural characteristics. However, numerous reports of G-quadruplex motifs/structures with unique features (e.g. bulges, long loops, vacancy) have recently surfaced, expanding the repertoire of G-quadruplex scaffolds. This review addresses G-quadruplex formation and structure, including recent reports of non-canonical G-quadruplex structures. Improved methods of detection will likely further expand this collection of novel structures and ultimately change the face of quadruplex-RNA targeting as a therapeutic strategy.
四链体是 DNA 和 RNA 中富含鸟嘌呤序列形成的二级结构。过去三十年来，大量研究深入了解了这些 DNA 中的异常结构。自最近对 RNA 四链体的探索以来，这些结构已经证明了它们在细胞内的存在、功能以及在病理学中的作用。与基于沃森-克里克的二级结构相比，大多数四链体显示出高度冗余的结构特征。然而，最近有大量报道表明具有独特特征的四链体基序/结构（例如凸起、长环、空缺），扩展了四链体支架的范围。本综述讨论了四链体的形成和结构，包括最近关于非规范四链体结构的报道。改进的检测方法可能会进一步扩展这组新型结构，并最终改变四链体-RNA 作为治疗策略的靶向方式。
