Multicarbazole scaffolds for selective G-quadruplex binding

Herein we report a new class of G-quadruplex stabilising ligands, multicarbazoles, which display high G-quadruplex DNA selectivity in the presence of 250 times excess duplex DNA. We report the synthesis of these compounds in moderate to high yields. Ligands in the series with optimal G-quadruplex selectivity contain an N-propylamino chain length where the amino functionalities are either pyrrolidine or piperidine.