CHEMISTRY, PROPERTIES AND APPLICATIONS OF PNA (PEPTIDE NUCLEIC-ACID)

Peptide Nucleic Acid (PNA) is conceptually a DNA analog, but in a chem ical sense PNA bridges peptides and nucleic acids by virtue of its pse udopeptide backbone and its nucleobases. Since this mimic was introduc ed five years ago, convenient synthetic routes to PNA monomers as well as oligomers have been devised, and a number of structural modificati ons have been introduced into PNA. In addition, extensive research has shed light on the interesting properties of PNA, demonstrating the de velopment potential of PNA into biomolecular tools, as well as antisen se and/or antigene drugs. This review focuses primarily on the chemica l aspects of PNA and its modifications, including the introduction of chirality, the elongation of the pseudopeptide backbone as well as the permutation of functional groups within the backbone, and the introdu ction of a non-natural nucleobase. In addition, the effects of covalen tly linking two PNA oligomers will be described. Furthermore, the abil ity of PNA to hybridize to DNA or RNA targets with a high sequence spe cificity will be discussed, as will the secondary structure of such hy brids and that of PNA itself. Finally, (potential) applications of PNA are briefly dealt with herein.