Synthesis and study of nucleic acids interactions of novel monomethine cyanine dyes

Six asymmetric monomethine cyanine dyes have been synthesized and their spectral characteristics and interaction with double stranded (ds)DNA have been investigated for their prospective use as fluorescent markers in molecular biology. Therefore, the non-covalent binding of the compounds with dsDNA was explored. Apart from the fluorescence spectroscopy, the study includes UV/Vis spectrophotometry and circular dichroism spectroscopy, as well as the thermal melting experiments. Although the compounds show relatively low binding affinity toward dsDNA and do not have intrinsic fluorescence, in the presence of dsDNA they exhibited considerable enhancement in fluorescence intensity. Therefore the studied dyes show interesting platform for future modifications directed toward more sequence selective derivatives. The compound with the highest affinity toward dsDNA showed interesting anti-proliferative potential and specificity. (C) 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.