Synthesis and Biological Evaluation of Pyrrole–Imidazole Polyamide Probes for Visualization of Telomeres (Springer Theses)

This book presents a novel method of synthesizing sequence-specific DNA binding pyrrole–imidazole (Py–Im) polyamides. It demonstrates polyamides targeting longer base pairs than previously reported and their cellular application. It discusses the development of the facile synthetic method of tandem hairpin Py–Im polyamides and the technique of visualizing telomeres under mild conditions without harsh denaturation, as well as research resulting in the synthesis not only of previously reported tandem dimer polyamides but also longer tandem trimer and tetramer polyamides. The author successfully stained telomeres in fixed cells without denaturation using fluorescently labeled tandem hairpin Py–Im polyamides targeting a human telomere repetitive sequence. These fluorescently labeled tandem tetramer polyamides can visualize human telomeres with lower background signals than previous polyamide probes, suggesting that they have higher specificity for telomeres. As such, this book provides insights into recent advances in Py–Im polyamides, particularly the extension of the target sites c