Final Activity Report Summary - DESIGN OF NEW NUCLEO (Design of new nucleosides for DNA interactions and fluorescent studies)
In this project, we have incorporated several analogs to different positions of two different RNA sequences. After purification of the modified RNA strand they were annealed with the complementary sequence and the corresponding thermal stability was determined. The RNA interference experiments were carried out on HeLa cells using the dual-luciferase system. The results have shown that the hydrogen bonding stabilisation is not required at every position; moreover at position 7 of the guide strand the activity is high despite the low thermal stability. Therefore we have carried out selectivity studies at position 7 utilising mutated target sequences. The results of this set of experiments have shown that steric effects are critical in selectivity. This work has been published in Angewandte Chemie Int. Ed. 2006, 45, 4994-4997.