Impact of Cu(II) and Ni(II) on a structure of chiral peptide nucleic acidshaving four, six and eight thymines in a peptide side chain

The studies on binding ability of longer chiral peptide nucleic acids (havi ng four, six and eight thymines in a peptide side chain) have shown that th e interactions between the nucleic base rings within a ligand molecule have a critical impact on the complex stability. Thymines inserted in the pepti de side chain interact with each other as well as with peptide back-bone in creasing the structural organization of the cPNA molecule. The metal ion co ordination to cPNA, on the other hand, induces a very specific ligand struc ture, which may have a basic impact on the cPNA self-recognition processes. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.