Small Molecules Induce and Promote the Stability of i-Motif Structure

5 Small Molecules Induce and Promote the Stability of i-Motif Structure 

Apart from TMPyP4 and its derivatives, several other types of molecules could also interact with i-motif DNA to stabilize the structure or induce the formation of i-motif DNA. However, most of them interact with i-motif DNA through the end-stacking mode other modes are barely reported. In the case of i-motif DNA, intercalation binding is even scarcer than with G-quadruplexes because the size of the planar layer is small and alternating, and n-n stacking interaction is less possible. In addition, the distance between the base pairs layer is about 3.1 A, which is smaller than B-DNA. Much more work is required, however, to evaluate this possibility. 

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