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Designing expanded bipyridinium as redox and optical probes for DNA

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Abstract

We report on the light-switch behaviour of two head-to-tail expanded bipyridinium species as a function of their interaction with calf thymus DNA and polynucleotides. In particular, both DNA and polynucleotides containing exclusively adenine or guanine moieties quench the luminescence of the fused expanded bipyridinium species. This behaviour has been rationalized demonstrating that a reductive photoinduced electron transfer process takes place involving both adenine or guanine moieties. The charge separated state so produced recombines in the tens of picoseconds. These results could help in designing new organic substrates for application in DNA probing technology and lab on chip-based sensing systems.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Chromaleont S.r.l., Università degli Studi di Messina, Polo Annunziata, Viale Annunziata, Messina, 98168, Italy

    Emanuela Trovato

  2. Dipartimento di Scienze Chimiche, Biologiche, Farmaceutiche ed Ambientali – ChiBioFarAm – Università di Messina, Viale F. Stagno d’Alcontres 31, Messina, 98166, Italy

    Maria Letizia Di Pietro, Antonino Giannetto, Francesco Nastasi, Fausto Puntoriero & Sebastiano Campagna

  3. Université de Paris, ITODYS, CNRS, UMR 7086, 15 rue J-A de Baïf, Paris, F-75013, France

    Gregory Dupeyre & Philippe P. Lainé

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  1. Emanuela Trovato
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  2. Maria Letizia Di Pietro
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Correspondence to Fausto Puntoriero.

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Trovato, E., Di Pietro, M.L., Giannetto, A. et al. Designing expanded bipyridinium as redox and optical probes for DNA. Photochem Photobiol Sci 19, 105–113 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1039/c9pp00418a

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