RT info:eu-repo/semantics/article T1 Combined spectroscopic and theoretical analysis of the binding of a water-soluble perylene diimide to DNA/RNA polynucleotides and G-quadruplexes A1 Macii, Francesca A1 Cupellini, Lorenzo A1 Stifano, Mariassunta A1 Santolaya, Javier A1 Pérez Arnáiz, Cristina A1 Pucci, Andrea A1 Barone, Giampaolo A1 García Ruiz, Begoña A1 Busto Vázquez, Natalia A1 Biver, Tarita K1 Density functional theory K1 Intercalation K1 Sitting atop K1 Molecular dynamics K1 Aggregation K1 Química física K1 Chemistry, Physical and theoretical AB We present here a combined spectroscopic and theoretical analysis of the binding of N,N’-bis(2-(1-piperazino)ethyl)-3,4,9,10-perylenetetracarboxylic acid diimide dichloride (PZPERY) to different biosubstrates. Absorbance titrations and circular dichroism experiments, melting studies and isothermal calorimetry (ITC) titrations reveal a picture where the binding to natural double-stranded DNA is very different from that to double and triple-stranded RNAs (poly(A)∙poly(U) and poly(U)∙poly(A)⁎poly(U)). As confirmed also by the structural and energetic details clarified by density functional theory (DFT) calculations, intercalation occurs for DNA, with a process driven by the combination of aggregates disruption and monomers intercalation. Oppositely, for RNAs, no intercalation but groove binding with the formation of supramolecular aggregates is observed. Among all the tested biosubstrates, the affinity of PZPERY towards DNA G-quadruplexes (G4) is the greatest one with a preference for human telomeric G4s. Focusing on hybrid G4 forms, either sitting-atop (“tetrad-parallel”) or lateral (“groove-parallel”) binding modes were considered in the discussion of the experimental results and molecular dynamics (MD) simulations. Both turned out to be possible concurrently, in agreement also with the experimental binding stoichiometries higher than 2:1. PB Elsevier SN 1386-1425 YR 2021 FD 2021-11 LK http://hdl.handle.net/10259/5815 UL http://hdl.handle.net/10259/5815 LA eng NO “la Caixa” Foundation (LCF/PR/PR12/11070003), Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades-FEDER (RTI2018-102040-B-100) and Junta de Castilla y León-FEDER (BU305P18). LC acknowledges funding by the European Research Council, under the grant ERC-AdG-786714 (LIFETimeS) DS Repositorio Institucional de la Universidad de Burgos RD 23-nov-2024