AbstractPsoralen‐conjugated triplex‐forming oligonucleotides (Ps‐TFOs) have been utilized for genome editing and anti‐gene experiments for over thirty years. However, the research on Ps‐TFOs employing artificial nucleotides is still limited, and their photo‐crosslinking properties have not been thoroughly investigated in relation to biological activities. In this study, we extensively examined the photo‐crosslinking properties of Ps‐TFOs to provide fundamental insights for future Ps‐TFO design. We developed novel Ps‐TFOs containing 2′‐O,4′‐C‐methylene‐bridged nucleic acids (Ps‐LNA‐mixmer) and investigated their photo‐crosslinking properties using stable cell lines that express firefly luciferase constitutively to evaluate the anti‐gene activities of Ps‐LNA‐mixmer. As a result, Ps‐LNA‐mixmer successfully demonstrated suppression activity, and we presented the first‐ever correlation between photo‐crosslinking properties and their activities. Our findings also indicate that the photo‐crosslinking process is insufficient under cell irradiation conditions (365 nm, 2 mW/cm2, 60 min). Therefore, our results highlight the need to develop new psoralen derivatives that are more reactive under cell irradiation conditions.
摘要补骨脂素共轭三聚体寡核苷酸(Ps-TFOs)用于基因组编辑和抗基因实验已有三十多年的历史。然而,对采用人工核苷酸的 Ps-TFOs 的研究还很有限,其光交联特性与生物活性的关系也没有得到深入研究。在本研究中,我们广泛研究了 Ps-TFOs 的光交联特性,为未来 Ps-TFO 的设计提供了基础性见解。我们开发了含有 2′-O、4′-C-亚甲基桥接核酸(Ps-LNA-mixmer)的新型 Ps-TFO,并利用组成型表达萤火虫荧光素酶的稳定细胞系研究了它们的光交联特性,以评估 Ps-LNA-mixmer 的抗基因活性。结果表明,Ps-LNA-mixmer 成功地表现出了抑制活性,我们首次提出了光交联特性与其活性之间的相关性。我们的研究结果还表明,在细胞照射条件下(365 纳米,2 毫瓦/平方厘米,60 分钟),光交联过程是不充分的。因此,我们的研究结果凸显了开发在细胞辐照条件下活性更强的新补骨脂素衍生物的必要性。