APPLICATIONS OF PEPTIDES NUCLEIC ACIDS (PNA) IN MOLECULAR MEDICINE AND BIOTECHNOLOGY 

Minerva Biotecnologica 1999 September;11(3):221-6

Copyright © 1999 EDIZIONI MINERVA MEDICA

language: English

Chemical modifications of peptide nucleic acids to enhance cell membrane permeability

Scarfì S., Giovine M., Millo E., Benatti U.

Department of Experimental Medicine, Biochemistry Section, University of Genoa, Genoa, Italy

Pep­tide ­nucleic ­acids (­PNAs) are ­very ­potent DNA ­mimic ­able to hybri­dize in ­vitro to com­ple­men­tary RNA or ­double ­stranded DNA ­sequences. Unfor­tu­nately, PNA oli­gomers are not ­taken up spon­ta­ne­ously by ­cells, ­which is a ­heavy ­obstacle to the devel­op­ment of PNA strat­e­gies for appli­ca­tions ­within ­intact ­cells. ­This ­report ­describes the cur­rent ­approaches ­adopted to ­improve the cel­lular ­uptake of anti­sense and ­antigéne PNA ­sequences chem­i­cally mod­i­fied to ­obtain mem­brane-perme­able com­pounds.