Abstract:

As a small catalytic DNA molecule, 10-23 DNAzyme has cleavage ability against complementary RNA. Previous studies of chemical modification have shown that its catalytic core can be further optimized in order to obtain more powerful catalytic ability. The analogues of 2′-deoxyadenosine (5) and 2′-deoxyguanosine (6) could improve the cleavage ability of the DNAzyme when positioned at positions A9, G2 and G14 in the catalytic core. Moreover, their combinatorial incorporations were studied, the results implicated that the effect was position-dependent, and positive additive results could be achievedat some positions. The highly conserved G1, G2 and G14 could be optimized by single or combinatorial modification with 2′-deoxyguanosine analogues. Chemical modifications on the functional groups of the core residues would be a feasible approach for the optimization of 10-23 DNAzyme.

Key words: 10-23 DNAzyme, Chemical modification, Amino group, Nucleoside analogues, Observed rate constant