Triple-Helical Binding of Peptide Nucleic Acid Inhibits Maturation of Endogenous MicroRNA-197

ACS Chem Biol. 2021 Jul 16;16(7):1147-1151. doi: 10.1021/acschembio.1c00133. Epub 2021 Jun 11.

Abstract

Sequence specific recognition and functional inhibition of biomedically relevant double-helical RNAs is highly desirable but remains a formidable problem. The present study demonstrates that electroporation of a triplex-forming peptide nucleic acid (PNA), modified with 2-aminopyridine (M) nucleobases, inhibited maturation of endogenous microRNA-197 in SH-SY5Y cells, while having little effect on maturation of microRNA-155 or -27a. In vitro RNA binding and Dicer inhibition assays suggested that the observed biological activity was most likely due to a sequence-specific PNA-RNA triplex formation that inhibited the activity of endonucleases responsible for microRNA maturation. The present study is the first example of modulation of activity of endogenous noncoding RNA using M-modified triplex-forming PNA.

Publication types

  • Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural
  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
  • Research Support, U.S. Gov't, Non-P.H.S.

MeSH terms

  • Cell Line, Tumor
  • Humans
  • Inverted Repeat Sequences
  • MicroRNAs / chemistry
  • MicroRNAs / metabolism*
  • Nucleic Acid Conformation
  • Peptide Nucleic Acids / chemistry
  • Peptide Nucleic Acids / metabolism*
  • Ribonuclease III / antagonists & inhibitors

Substances

  • MIRN197 microRNA, human
  • MicroRNAs
  • Peptide Nucleic Acids
  • Ribonuclease III