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Biophysical aspects and biological implications of the interaction of benzophenanthridine alkaloids with DNA

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Abstract

Benzophenanthridine alkaloids represent a very interesting and significant group of natural products that exhibit a broad range of biological and pharmacological properties. Among this group of alkaloids, sanguinarine, nitidine, fagaronine, and chelerythrine have the potential to form molecular complexes with DNA structures and have attracted recent attention for their possible clinical and pharmacological utility. This review focuses on the interaction of these alkaloids with polymorphic DNA structures (B-form, Z-form, HL-form, and triple helical form) reported by several research groups employing various physical techniques such as spectrophotometry, spectrofluorimetry, circular dichroism, NMR spectroscopy, thermal melting, viscometry as well as thermodynamic analysis by isothermal titration calorimetry and differential scanning calorimetry to elucidate the mode and mechanism of action at the molecular level to determine the structure-activity relationship. DNA binding properties of these alkaloids are interpreted in relation to their biological activity.

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Acknowledgements

Thanks are due to the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, Government of India, for the Emeritus Scientist award to M. Maiti. The authors are grateful to all the present and past colleagues at the Biophysical Chemistry Laboratory for their help and cooperation and in particular to those who have contributed over the years to the understanding of sanguinarine binding to nucleic acid structures.

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  1. Biophysical Chemistry Laboratory, Indian Institute of Chemical Biology, Kolkata, 700032, India

    Motilal Maiti & Gopinatha Suresh Kumar

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  1. Motilal Maiti
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Correspondence to Motilal Maiti.

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Maiti, M., Kumar, G.S. Biophysical aspects and biological implications of the interaction of benzophenanthridine alkaloids with DNA. Biophys Rev 1, 119–129 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12551-009-0014-7

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