ISBN: 978-83-60043-10-3 - eurobic9

Eurobic9, 2-6 September, 2008, Wrocław, Poland
SL33. Lanthanide Complexes of Schiff Bases Derived from Biogenic
Diamines as Potential Synthetic Nucleases
W. Radecka-Paryzek
Faculty of Chemistry, Adam Mickiewicz University, Grunwaldzka 6, 60-780, Poznań, Poland,
e-mail: wrp@amu.edu.pl
Non-enzymatic hydrolysis of DNA and RNA has attracted much interest, because it is essential for further
developments in biotechnology, molecular biology, therapy and related fields. There are no natural enzymes
showing sufficient sequence-specifity in RNA scission. Thus, artificial enzymes, which selectively hydrolyse
DNA and RNA at the target position with a desired specifity, are crucially important. A few years ago, the
catalytic activity of complexes containing lanthanide ions for hydrolysis of nucleic acids was discovered. This
efficiency results from the conjuction of peculiar chemical and structural properties of the lanthanides associated
with their 4f configuration, and rapid ligand exchange rate. These characteristics make them well-suited to be
catalytic centers in the development of artificial ribonucleases. The lanthanide complexes obtained by us as the
first examples of the usefulness of these metal ions as templates in the metal-promoted synthesis of the
macrocyclic Schiff bases have found to be very effective catalysts for hydrolytic cleavage and transesterification
of RNA phosphate diester backbone. In this contribution we wish to report the specific properties of lanthanide
Schiff base complexes derived from biogenic amines (putrescine, cadaverine, spermine and spermine analogues),
bound to a DNA oligomer (across succinic acid linker) as the sequence-recognizing moieties which are able to
selectively hydrolyse RNA at the target site.
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