Effects of 2'-O-modifications on RNA duplex stability

Abstract

Modifications of RNA have been widely studied. Despite the long history of studies on 2'-hydroxyl modifications, they are still attracting attention because of their facile synthetic accessibility and large influence on the biological and physical properties of RNA duplexes. This chapter focuses on the effects of chemical modifications on RNA duplex stability. The effects of the 2'-hydroxyl modifications on preorganization of the RNA backbone and hydration around the 2'-site are briefly described. Our recent studies on the development of methods for estimating the hybridization ability of synthetic 2'-O-modified RNAs using molecular dynamic simulations will be reviewed.