Systematic Investigation of Tether Length and Phosphorus Configuration in Backbone Constrained Macrocyclic Nucleic Acids to Modulate Binding Kinetics for RNA.

We recently described a chemical strategy to pre-organize a trinucleotide subunit in a conformation suitable for Watson-Crick base pairing for modulating the binding kinetics of single-stranded oligonucleotides (ONs) using bis-phosphonate esters bridging hydrocarbon tethers to provide 11- and 15-membered macrocyclic analogues. In this manuscript, we describe the synthesis of all eight P-stereoisomers of macrocyclic 12-, 13-, 14-, and 16-membered hydrocarbon-bridged nucleotide trimers, their incorporation into ONs, and biophysical characterization of the modified ONs. The size of the macrocyclic tether and configuration at phosphorus had profound effects on hybridization kinetics. ONs containing 12- and 13-membered rings exhibited faster on-rates (up to 5-fold) and off-rates (up to 161-fold). In contrast, ONs using the larger ring size macrocycles generally exhibited smaller changes in binding kinetics relative to unmodified DNA. Interestingly, several of the analogues retained significant binding affinity for RNA based on their dissociation constants, despite being modestly destabilizing in the thermal denaturation experiments, highlighting the potential utility of measuring dissociation constants versus duplex thermal stability when evaluating novel nucleic acid analogues. Overall, our results provide additional insights into the ability of backbone-constrained macrocyclic nucleic acid analogues to modulate hybridization kinetics of modified ONs with RNA.

Backbone Hydrocarbon-Constrained Nucleic Acids Modulate Hybridization Kinetics for RNA.

The binding affinity of therapeutic oligonucleotides (ONs) for their cognate RNA is determined by the rates of association (ka) and dissociation (kd). Single-stranded ONs are highly flexible and can adopt multiple conformations in solution, some of which may not be conducive for hybridization. We investigated if restricting rotation around the sugar-phosphate backbone, by tethering two adjacent backbone phosphonate esters using hydrocarbon bridges, can modulate hybridization kinetics of the modified ONs for complementary RNA. Given the large number of possible analogues with different tether lengths and configurations at the phosphorus atoms, we employed molecular dynamic simulations to optimize the size of the hydrocarbon bridge to guide the synthetic efforts. The backbone-constrained nucleotide trimers with stereodefined configurations at the contiguous backbone phosphorus atoms were assembled using a ring-closing metathesis reaction, then incorporated into oligonucleotides by an in situ synthesis of the phosphoramidites followed by coupling to solid supports. Evaluation of the modified oligonucleotides revealed that 15-membered macrocyclic-constrained analogues displayed similar or slightly improved on-rates but significantly increased off-rates compared to unmodified DNA ONs, resulting in reduced duplex stability. In contrast, LNA ONs with conformationally preorganized furanose rings showed similar on-rates to DNA ONs but very slow off-rates, resulting in net improvement in duplex stability. Furthermore, the experimental data generally supported the molecular dynamics simulation results, suggesting that this strategy can be used as a predictive tool for designing the next generation of constrained backbone ON analogues with improved hybridization properties.

Four oxoindole-linked α-alkoxy-ß-amino acid derivatives.

Four structures of oxoindolyl α-hydroxy-ß-amino acid derivatives, namely, methyl 2-{3-[(tert-butoxycarbonyl)amino]-1-methyl-2-oxoindolin-3-yl}-2-methoxy-2-phenylacetate, C24H28N2O6, (I), methyl 2-{3-[(tert-butoxycarbonyl)amino]-1-methyl-2-oxoindolin-3-yl}-2-ethoxy-2-phenylacetate, C25H30N2O6, (II), methyl 2-{3-[(tert-butoxycarbonyl)amino]-1-methyl-2-oxoindolin-3-yl}-2-[(4-methoxybenzyl)oxy]-2-phenylacetate, C31H34N2O7, (III), and methyl 2-[(anthracen-9-yl)methoxy]-2-{3-[(tert-butoxycarbonyl)amino]-1-methyl-2-oxoindolin-3-yl}-2-phenylacetate, C38H36N2O6, (IV), have been determined. The diastereoselectivity of the chemical reaction involving α-diazoesters and isatin imines in the presence of benzyl alcohol is confirmed through the relative configuration of the two stereogenic centres. In esters (I) and (III), the amide group adopts an anti conformation, whereas the conformation is syn in esters (II) and (IV). Nevertheless, the amide group forms intramolecular N-H···O hydrogen bonds with the ester and ether O atoms in all four structures. The ether-linked substituents are in the extended conformation in all four structures. Ester (II) is dominated by intermolecular N-H···O hydrogen-bond interactions. In contrast, the remaining three structures are sustained by C-H···O hydrogen-bond interactions.