An Overview of Peptide Nucleic Acids: Structure, Properties, and Applications

Document Type : Review Article

Authors

1 MSc Student, Pediatrics Inherited Diseases Research Center And Department of Genetics and Molecular Biology, School of Medicine AND Student Research Committee, Isfahan University of Medical Sciences, Isfahan, Iran

2 Assistant Professor, Pediatrics Inherited Diseases Research Center And Department of Genetics and Molecular Biology, School of Medicine, Isfahan University of Medical Sciences, Isfahan, Iran

Abstract

For decades, nucleic acid analogues have been emerged in molecular biology. Some of these analogues are powerful bimolecular tools in biotechnology. Among the four major classes of these synthetic molecules (XNA: xenonucleic acid, LNA: locked nucleic acid, PNA: peptide nucleic acid and morpholino), PNA is the most important. In PNA, N-aminoethyle glycine units (to which purine/pyrimidine bases have been attached), are joined together to form an achiral and peptide-like structure that mimics the behavior of DNA and can hybridize to nucleic acid and to other PNA in sequence specific manner. Because of its unique physicochemical properties, PNA in many cases prefers over natural oligonucleotide and therefore, have been exploited in some strategies and methods in the field of diagnostics and therapy. In this review, we describe the structure, biochemical properties, and biomedical applications of PNA.

Keywords

References

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Journal of Isfahan Medical School
Volume 31, Issue 270 - Serial Number 270
November and December 2014
Pages 2390-2402

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History

  • Receive Date: 26 January 2014
  • Revise Date: 02 November 2024
  • Accept Date: 06 April 2022

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