A novel detection system based on amplification and a strongly correlated hydrogen network

从聚合物化学的角度来看，DNA被认为是一种强相关的软材料，因为它的结构是由许多合作相互作用决定的，如氢键、芳香环的pi-pi堆叠和静电力。利用DNA的这些特性，可能会开发出一种新的材料。或者，可以利用DNA本身来开发DNA合成技术。到目前为止，我们站在后者的立场上，一直在研究含有生物化学有用试剂的材料。本文讨论了一种利用DNA四复体形成的新试剂，四复体是DNA复杂结构的一种形式。1)钾感应寡核苷酸（PSO）几种金属离子在生物体中具有重要作用。钾离子与其他金属离子和某些疾病的调控有关，在医学领域受到广泛的关注。目前在这一点上研究了几种试剂，但它们的水溶性和特异性都不足。本文首次成功制备了水溶性钾离子敏感试剂，该试剂对钾离子的特异性比钠离子高。2) TAP可能是端粒酶的潜在抑制剂，一些癌症被认为是由于端粒酶的活性增强，端粒酶催化端粒DNA末端的延伸。由于端粒酶不能与g -四重奏结构结合，能够稳定这种DNA结构的化合物是端粒酶抑制剂的良好候选物。我们测试了与DNA相互作用的TAP对端粒酶的抑制能力。TAP具有显著的稳定g -四重奏结构的能力，因此有望作为一种新型的端粒酶抑制剂。

DNA is regarded as a strongly correlated soft material from a viewpoint of polymer chemistry, as its structure is dictated by many cooperative interactions such as hydrogen bonding, pi-pi stacking of aromatic rings, and electrostatic forces. A new material may be developed successfully using these characteristics of DNA. Alternatively, DNA itself may be utilized aiming at developing a DNA synthesizing technology. So far, we stand in the latter position and have been studying materials containing biochemically useful reagents. Here, we discuss a new reagent by using DNA tetraplex formationwhich is one form of complex structures of DNA. 1)Potassium sensing oligonucleotide, PSO Several metal ions have an important role in living organism. Potassium ion is connected with regulation of other metal ions and some diseases and is attracted in the medical area. So far several reagents were studied in this point, but they have insufficient water-solubility and specificity. In this paper, we firstly succeeded the water-soluble sensing reagent for a potassium ion, which showed the very high specificity for potassium ion over sodium one. 2)Tetrakis-acridiny peptide (TAP) as a potential telomerase inhibitor Some of the cancers are believed to be derived from enhanced activity of telomerase, which catalyzes the extension of telomere DNA termini. Since telomerase cannot bind to a G-quartet structure, compounds which can stabilize such a DNA structure are good candidate for telomerase inhibitor. We tested inhibition ability of TAP, which interacts with DNA, for telomerase. TAP had remarkable stabilization power of a G-quartet structure and hence is promising as a novel telomerase inhibitor.