Interaction of spermine derivative porphyrin with DNA

Porphyrinoids are ideal compounds to be incorporated into DNA due to their peculiar spectroscopic characteristics, fascinating photochemistry and synthetic versatility. The ability to act as photosensitizers in the presence of oxygen promoted interest of the scientific community to study the non-covalent binding of porphyrins with DNA in order to use them in photodynamic therapy. Thus, the understanding of the mechanisms involved in the binding of porphyrins with DNA can help to find a porphyrin with specific base degradation activity. In this work we characterized the binding modes of spermine derivative porphyrin with three different polynucleotides: ct-DNA, poly(dG-dC)(2) in both B- and Z-conformation using several spectroscopic techniques (UV-vis, Electronic Circular Dichroism and Resonance Light Scattering).