Abstract
The potential of peptide nucleic acids (PNAs) as specific inhibitors of translation has been studied. PNAs with a mixed purine/pyrimidine sequence form duplexes, while homopyrimidine PNAs form (PNA)2/RNA triplexes with complementary sequences on RNA. We show here that neither of these PNA/RNA structures are substrates for RNase H. Translation experiments in cell-free extracts showed that a 15mer duplex-forming PNA blocked translation in a dose-dependent manner when the target was 5'-proximal to the AUG start codon on the RNA, whereas similar 10-, 15- or 20mer PNAs had no effect when targeted towards sequences in the coding region. Triplex-forming 10mer PNAs were efficient and specific antisense agents with a target overlapping the AUG start codon and caused arrest of ribosome elongation with a target positioned in the coding region of the mRNA. Furthermore, translation could be blocked with a 6mer bisPNA or with a clamp PNA, forming partly a triplex, partly a duplex, with its target sequence in the coding region of the mRNA.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Journal | Nucleic Acids Research |
| Volume | 24 |
| Issue number | 3 |
| Pages (from-to) | 494-500 |
| Number of pages | 7 |
| ISSN | 0305-1048 |
| Publication status | Published - 1 Feb 1996 |
Keywords
- Base Sequence
- Molecular Sequence Data
- Nucleic Acids/chemical synthesis
- Oligonucleotides, Antisense/chemical synthesis
- Peptides/chemical synthesis
- RNA/metabolism