Intercalating reagent ethidium bromide

One system recently investigated is that of the biological stain, ethidium bromide, dissolved in the DSCG mesophases [63]. This reagent is widely used in biochemistry as a marker for nucleic acids. Stained material (where the stain is intercalated between the nucleic acid bases) shows a strong fluorescence, whereas the reagent on its own does not. In the mixed dye/drug system there is a metachromic color shift and the fluorescence appears (Fig. 12). 

The ease of intercalation of other chro-monic and potentially chromonic materials. A number of biochemical reagents, such as acridines and ethidium bromide, intercalate readily between the stacked bases in DNA and RNA. Anticancer drugs, such as the square planar platinum complexes, intercalate avidly (Fig. 14) and naturally occurring antibiotics, such as actinomycin, similarly act by intercalation into the stack of bases [67]. They act as tailor-made spanners in the works and prevent the reading and replication of DNA. 

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