Themed collection Nucleic Acid Chemistry: celebrating Christian Leumann’s retirement

Marcel Hollenstein and Eugen Stulz introduce the cross-journal themed collection celebrating Christian Leumann’s retirement.

The review summarizes the preclinical evaluation of tricyclo-DNA-ASOs from the first fully phosphorotiated compounds to the latest generation of lipid-conjugated-ASOs currently evaluated in clinical trials for the treatment of DMD.

This review provides an overview of enzymatic synthesis methods for DNA strands with ligand-type artificial nucleotides forming metal-mediated base pairs, which have been applied in developing metal-responsive functional DNA molecules.

Original N-arylsulfonamide acyclic analogues of adenosine as bisubstrates of RNA cap guanine N7-methyltransferase nsp14 of SARS-CoV-2 were prepared and some of them were barely active at 50 μM against this RNA cap methylation enzyme.

The self-assembly of DNA–chromophore conjugates into nanospheres is demonstrated. Phenanthrenes are arranged in light-harvesting chromophore arrays collecting excitation energy via FRET.

Dicyanovinyl-modified uracil produces fluorescent molecular rotors (FMR) that display massively red-shifted emission and huge Stokes shifts.

A practical approach to generate mRNA 5′-fragments with clicked triazole linkages in the backbone is presented.

Using capture-SELEX, aptamers for Tris were isolated but the selection for HEPES failed, and the possibility of obtaining buffer binding aptamers during aptamer selection experiments is discussed.

Heteroduplexes comprised of densely intercalator-modified oligodeoxyribonucleotides and LNAs (locked nucleic acids) enable highly specific mixed-sequence recognition of double-stranded DNA regions.

We optimize a peptide dendrimer transfection reagent to deliver a large CRISPR/Cas9 plasmid DNA into cells, elucidate its delivery mechanism, and demonstrate its gene editing efficiency.

Enzymatic bioconjugation of DNA with efficient photosensitizers for photodynamic therapy applications.

The purinyl nitrogen atom is an effective metalation director, which in the presence of Pd(OAc)₂, t-BuOOH, and aryl aldehydes, leads to acylation of the aryl ring at the C6 position of the purine.

An enzyme-cleavable dipeptide linker between an oligonucleotide and its payload tracelessly releases the payload in cells with applications in the rapidly expanding fields of oligonucleotide-drug conjugates and targeted oligonucleotide therapeutics.

The synthesis of alkylphosphonate-linked locked nucleic acid (LNA) trimers which restrict conformation of the furanose sugar and conformational mobility of the sugar-phosphate backbone across three nucleotide units is described.

Clicking-on side chains to assess the impact of charges on hybridization properties of PNA.

The oxidation of phosphite triester by peroxides contained in THF as a solvent is reflected as a PO-substituted product during the synthesis of phosphorothioate-modified oligonucleotides.

The m6A-modified tracrRNA can retain Cas9-mediated DNA cleavage activity only when the modified residues are located in the tail part of the tracrRNA, which is composed of stem loops 2 and 3.

Threofuranosyl nucleic acid (TNA), an artificial genetic polymer known for its nuclease resistance and acid stability, has grown in popularity as a genetically-encoded material for applications in synthetic biology and biomedicine.

Molecular beacons prepared from L-configured building blocks using a two-fold click chemistry for dye modification show a temperature-induced fluorescence color readout.

Transcription reactions with excess adenosine surrogates leads to 5′-end modified transcripts, which can be ligated to diverse RNAs. By modifying a key position in a MazF RNA substrate, insight into the folding and recognition features is gained.

SARS-CoV-2 nsp14 methyltransferase inhibitors based on adenosine 5′-carboxamides.