Hydrolytically stable octahedral silicon complexes as bioactive scaffolds: application to the design of DNA intercalators

Abstract

We here introduce octahedral silicon serving as a structural center for the design of hydrolytically stable bioactive complexes as demonstrated with the generation of silicon-based high affinity DNA binders. This proof-of-principle study suggests that octahedral silicon complexes are falsely neglected, promising structural templates for widespread applications in chemical biology and medicinal chemistry.