Design and study of telomerase inhibitors based on G-quadruplex ligands

Abstract

In this review we have summarized the results of our recent research on telomerase inhibitors and G-quadruplex DNA ligands. A series of potential enzyme inhibitors were synthesized and studied. These compounds were based on tricyclic heteroaromatic systems (thiazolobenzimidazoles phenazines, acridones), amino-substituted cyanines and natural and synthetic porphyrins and their metalocomplexes. A number of compounds, including cyanines and especially porphyrin derivatives and conjugates, were found to efficiently inhibit telomerase at low micromolar concentrations in the in vitro TRAP assay. Porphyrins demonstrated antiproliferative activity in tumor cell cultures at micro and nanomolar concentrations. Spectral-fluorescent and electrophoretic experiments were performed to investigate the interaction of ligands with duplex and quadruplex DNA, and in many cases binding mode was established. Convenient G-octet model of G-quadruplex was developed to study the ligand-target binding using quantum-chemical methods. QM/MM hybrid approach ONIUM2 was employed to model the interaction of small molecules with Tel22 quadruplex DNA.