Thioflavin T as an Efficient Inducer and Selective Fluorescent Sensor for the Human Telomeric G-Quadruplex DNA

The quest for a G-quadruplex specific fluorescent sensor among other DNA forms under physiological salt conditions has been addressed in this article. We demonstrate for the first time the application of a water-soluble fluorogenic dye, Thioflavin T (ThT), in a dual role of exclusively inducing quadruplex folding in the 22AG human telomeric DNA, both in the presence and absence of Tris buffer/salt, and sensing the same through its fluorescence light-up having emission enhancement of the order of 2100-fold in the visible region. Appropriate conditions allow an apparent switch over of the parallel quadruplex structure in 22AG-ThT (50 mM Tris, pH 7.2) solution to the antiparallel form just by the addition of K+ ions in the range 10-50 mM. Moreover, addition of ThT cooperatively stabilizes the K+ induced antiparallel quadruplexes by a Delta T-m similar to 11 degrees C. The distinction of ThT as a quadruplex inducer has been contrasted with the erstwhile used structurally related dye, Thiazole Orange (TO), which did not induce any quadruplex folding in the 22AG strand in the absence of salt. The striking fluorescence light-up in ThT on binding to the human telomeric G-quadruplex is shown to be highly specific compared to the less than 250-fold enhancement observed with other single/double strand DNA forms. This work has implication in designing new generation dyes based on the ThT scaffold, which are highly selective for telomeric DNA, for potential diagnostic, therapeutic, and ion-sensing applications.