INHIBITION OF NF-KAPPA-B SPECIFIC TRANSCRIPTIONAL ACTIVATION BY PNA STRAND INVASION

Peptide nucleic acid (PNA) strand invasion offers an attractive altern ative to DNA oligonucleotide directed tripler formation as a potential tool for gene inhibition. Peptide nucleic acid has been shown to inte ract with duplex DNA in a process which involves strand invasion of th e duplex and binding of one of the DNA strands with two PNA oligomers, By blocking the interaction of a transcription factor with 5' regulat ory sequences, PNA might specifically down-regulate gene activity, Her e we demonstrate that PNA is capable of specifically blocking interact ion of the transcription factor NF-kappa B with the IL2-R alpha NF kap pa-B binding site in vitro. We further demonstrate that this interacti on is sufficient to prevent transcriptional transactivation both in vi tro and when transfected into cells in culture.