Ligands and Gene Regulation
This section reflects a long-standing interest of mine in gene regulation. I started my career looking into the role of polyamines in bacterial and (by extensive literature) in human biology, especially as it related to cancer. The second phase of my work was involved in the development of bacterial test systems to determine which environmental chemicals were mutagenic or DNA-damaging, in the conceptual framework (and experimentally shown) that these would be potential carcinogens. This in turn led me to consider that there might be chemicals that do not change the primary sequence of the DNA or its structural integrity but rather act to modify the secondary or tertiary structure of the DNA in such a way as to affect the binding of regulatory proteins. Depending on the gene, and, I suspect, the timing of the sometimes transient chemical interaction, could result on effects not only on carcinogenesis but also on development, aging and particular pathologies.
Click on LigandsList Outline Tab
51. Leifer, Z. (2016). “The Effect of Small Molecule Ligands on DNA Structure: A
Dictionary and a Wiki”. Poster Presented at the Cell Symposium: Transcription
Regulation in Development and Disease. June 26-28, 2016, Chicago, IL. Published in
Poster listings at the Symposium.
55. Leifer, Z. (2018). E-Poster: “The Role of G-Quadruplex Structures in DNA, Ligands That Affect Them and Their Effect on Human Health and Disease: A Review of Recent Literature and A Proposal” at the LabRoots Online Conference on Genetics and Genomics (May 9-10, 2018).
Singh, V. and Leifer, Z. (2018). G-Quadruplex Structures in Microbial DNA - A Role in Basic Biology and a Possible Antimicrobial Target: A Review of Recent Literature and a Proposal. Presented in e-poster format at the Labroots Online Conference on Microbiology and Immunology
https://events.labroots.com/event/MicrobiologyandImmunology2018/en-us#!/PosterHall/n280328
Small Molecules and DNA Structure 📷
This site provides an organized and annotated compilation ("a dictionary") of the effect of various small molecule ligands on DNA structure at multiple levels. Where known, the effect on structure as it relates to protein binding is indicated. This site is owned, edited and curated by: Zev Leifer, Ph.D., President and Chief Research Officer of The Leifer Institute for Molecular and Digital Pathology and Professor of Microbiology and Pathology Emeritus, New York College of Podiatric Medicine New York, NY All colleagues interested in participating in this project, contact Dr. Leifer at zleifer@limdp.org
outline
http://ligandsanddna.wordpress.com
Ligands that affect structure
Z-DNA
G-quadruplexes
G-quadruplex-binding ligands
i-motifs
i-motif binding ligands
cruciform DNA
cruciform DNA-binding ligands
Triple stranded DNA
Triplex-binding ligands
Curvature
Ligands that decrease DNA curvature
Ligands that increase DNA curvature
Twisting
Stretching
Length -modifying ligands
Binding to bases
Intercalation
Stereochemical enantiomers
Naturally-occurring DNA-binding ligands
Antitumor Drugs that target DNA Structure