We are pleased to inform that the publication by Weronika Kotkowiak, Ph.D., Karolina Roxo, M.Sc., and Dr. hab. Anna Pasternak, prof. IBCH PAS from the Department of Nucleic Acids Bioengineering, was distinguished with an illustration on the cover of the journal “ACS Medicinal Chemistry Letters”. In the work entitled “Physicochemical and antiproliferative characteristics of RNA and DNA sequence-related G-quadruplexes”, physicochemical and biological properties of RNA and DNA oligonucleotides with different sequences, forming specific spatial structures, the so-called G-quadruplexes, were compared. The authors showed that even slight variations in the sequence initiate changes of G-quadruplex properties. DNA G-quadruplexes were characterized by lower thermal stability, higher topological diversity and more efficient antiproliferative activity than RNA G-quadruplexes. Studies carried out on cancer cell lines showed that DNA G-quadruplexes are better candidates as inhibitors of cancer cell proliferation.

https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acsmedchemlett.2c00361