New insights into the effect of molecular crowding environment induced by dimethyl sulfoxide on the conformation and stability of G-quadruplex

• Published in: 中国化学快报（英文版） Vol. 34; no. 3; pp. 326 - 331
• Main Authors: Yumeng Yang, Junfeng Xiang, Hongxia Sun, Hengwen Chen, Hong Zhang, Yalin Tang
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: University of Chinese Academy of Sciences,Beijing 100049,China%University of Chinese Academy of Sciences,Beijing 100049,China 2023; Beijing National Laboratory for Molecular Sciences,State Key Laboratory for Structural Chemistry of Unstable and Stable Species,Institute of Chemistry,Chinese Academy of Sciences,Beijing 100190,China; Center for Physiochemical Analysis&Measurement,Institute of Chemistry,Chinese Academy of Sciences,Beijing 100190,China%Beijing National Laboratory for Molecular Sciences,State Key Laboratory for Structural Chemistry of Unstable and Stable Species,Institute of Chemistry,Chinese Academy of Sciences,Beijing 100190,China%Department of Cardiology,Guang'anmen Hospital,China Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences,Beijing 100053,China
• Subjects: Molecular crowding; c-kit; Dimethyl sulfoxide; G-quadruplex
• ISSN: 1001-8417

Various structures of G-quadruplex in biosystems play an important role in different diseases and are often regulated by a variety of molecular crowding environments induced by internal and even external factors(e.g.,a solvent).Dimethyl sulfoxide(DMSO),a universal solvent,has been widely used in bio-logical studies and for drug therapy,but little is known regarding its effect on G-quadruplex structure and stability.Here,we report the influence of molecular crowding environment induced by DMSO on the conformation and stability of G-quadruplex structure.We show that the G-quadruplex-forming se-quences such as human telomeric sequence,which may have diverse conformations in different environ-ments,tend to convert their topologies to parallel structures under the molecular crowding stimulated by DMSO.Moreover,DMSO can increase the stability of the parallel and antiparallel topologies,especially the parallel G-quadruplex sequence c-kit,but not the hybrid topologies.Further analysis of c-kit using the CD and NMR technique,combined with the unique structural characteristics of c-kit,reveals that the crowding,dehydration and interaction of DMSO are conductive to the formation and stability of the par-allel G-quadruplex.The present study suggests that,DMSO,a common solvent used in DNA experiments,may have a nonnegligible influence on the structure and stability of G-quadruplex.